arrestive

English

Etymology

From arrest +‎ -ive.

Adjective

arrestive (comparative more arrestive, superlative most arrestive)

1. Tending to arrest.
   1. Tending to stop or slow a process.
      • 1850, James McCosh, The Method of the Divine Government‎^[1], New York: Robert Caster, published 1851, Book 3, Chapter 3, p. 422:

        Some [emotions] are Instigative, and others Arrestive.

      • 1973, Hugh Downs, chapter 11, in Potential: The Way to Emotional Maturity‎^[2], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 188:

        This reactive recoiling from something clearly in our nature is itself unnatural. It is as arrestive of emotional progress as the opposite practice of uncontrolled indulgence, which is a symptom, not a cause, of emotional immaturity.

      • 2006, Mea A. Weinberg et al., chapter 21, in Comprehensive Periodontics for the Dental Hygienist‎^[3], 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, page 315:

        […] most periodontal therapy aims to prevent the initiation, progression, or recurrence of periodontal diseases. This can be termed arrestive periodontal therapy.

   2. (dated) Tending to capture people’s attention.

      Synonyms: arresting, captivating, conspicuous, remarkable, striking

      • 1870, Margaret Junkin Preston, “The Color-Bearer”, in Old Song and New‎^[4], Philadelphia: Lippincott, p. ,144:

        As fast they pressed with laboring breath,
        Clinched teeth and knitted frown,
        The sharp, arrestive cry rang out,—
        “The color-bearer’s down!”

      • 1899, Israel Zangwill, “Bethulah”, in They That Walk in Darkness: Ghetto Tragedies‎^[5], Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, pages 198–199:

        I noted a curious streak of yellow in the silvered eyebrows, as if youth clung on, so to speak, by a single hair, and underneath these arrestive eyebrows green pupils alternately glowed and smouldered.

      • 1916, C. Alphonso Smith, chapter 1, in O. Henry Biography‎^[6], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 3:

        First, the reader notices in an O. Henry story the quiet but arrestive beginning.

Derived terms

• arrestively
• arrestiveness

Anagrams

• Traversie