Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Academy

Academy ({not transcribed}) , noun

[French académie, Latin academia. Compare Academe.]

1.
A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head.
2.
An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.
3.
A place of training; a school.
Academies of fanaticism. — Hume
4.
A society of learned men united for the advancement of the arts and sciences, and literature, or some particular art or science; as, the French Academy; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; academies of literature and philology.
5.
A school or place of training in which some special art is taught; as, the military academy at West Point; a riding academy; the Academy of Music.
Collocations (1)
Academy figure (Painting) , a drawing usually half life-size, in crayon or pencil, after a nude model.