costive

English

Etymology

From Middle French costivé, ultimately from Latin constipatus (“constipated”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒstɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑstɪv/

Adjective

costive

1. Constipated.
   • 1607 (first performance), [Francis Beaumont], The Knight of the Burning Pestle, London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Walter Burre, […], published 1613, →OCLC, Act V, signature K3, recto:

     When I was mortall, this my costiue corps / Did lap vp Figs and Raisons in the Strand, / Where sitting I espi'd a louely Dame, / Whose maister wrought with Lingell and with All, / And vnder ground he vampied many a boote.

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN, page 346:

     Melanie, who was used to Wani's costive memos, and even to dressing up the gist of a letter in her own words, stuck out her tongue in concentration as she took down Nick's old-fashioned periods and perplexing semicolons.

2. (informal) Miserly, parsimonious.

Derived terms

• costively
• costiveness

Anagrams

• voicest