*stive*

a. [ L. arbustivus, fr. arbustum place where trees are planted. ] Containing copses of trees or shrubs; covered with shrubs. Bartram. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Tending to arrest. McCosh. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Lending aid, helping. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Attesting; furnishing evidence. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Presumptuous. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Med.) Pertaining to, indicating, or attended with, congestion in some part of the body; as, a congestive fever. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OF. costevé, p. p. of costever, F. constiper, L. constipare to press closely together, to cram; con- + stipare to press together, cram. See Stipulate, Stiff, and cf. Constipate. ] 1. Retaining fecal matter in the bowels; having too slow a motion of the bowels; constipated. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Reserved; formal; close; cold. [ Obs. ] “A costive brain.” Prior. “Costive of laughter.” B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

You must be frank, but without indiscretion; and close, but without being costive. Lord Chesterfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Dry and hard; impermeable; unyielding. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Clay in dry seasons is costive, hardening with the sun and wind. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a costive manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An unnatural retention of the fecal matter of the bowels; constipation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inability to express one's self; stiffness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A reverend disputant of the same costiveness in public elocution with myself. Wakefield. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ See Desist. ] Final; conclusive; ending. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ F. digestif, L. digestivus. ] Pertaining to digestion; having the power to cause or promote digestion; as, the digestive ferments. [ 1913 Webster ]

Digestive cheese and fruit there sure will be. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Digestive apparatus, the organs of food digestion, esp. the alimentary canal and glands connected with it. --
Digestive salt, the chloride of potassium. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. That which aids digestion, as a food or medicine. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

That digestive [ a cigar ] had become to me as necessary as the meal itself. Blackw. Mag. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Med.) (a) A substance which, when applied to a wound or ulcer, promotes suppuration. Dunglison. (b) A tonic. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Serving or tending to exhaust; exhibiting all the facts or arguments; as, an exhaustive method. Ex*haust"ive*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

a. [ L. festivus, fr. festum holiday, feast. See feast, and cf. Festivous. ] Pertaining to, or becoming, a feast; festal; joyous; gay; mirthful; sportive. -- Fes"tive*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

The glad circle round them yield their souls
To festive mirth and wit that knows no gall. Thomson. [1913 Webster]

adj. Not able to burn or able to burn only with difficulty. [ Narrower terms: noncombustible (vs. combustible), incombustible ]
Syn. -- fireproof. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ OF. hastif. See Haste, n., and cf. Hastif. ] Forward; early; -- said of fruits. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Inexhaustible. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. infestivus. See In- not, and Festive. ] Having no mirth; not festive or merry; dull; cheerless; gloomy; forlorn. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. intempestivus: cf. F. intempestif. See In- not, and Tempestive. ] Out of season; untimely. [ Obs. ] Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Intempestive bashfulness gets nothing. Hales. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Unseasonably. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Investing. [ R. ] Mir. for Mag. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. See Persistent. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Serving to resist. B. Jonsosn. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OF. restif, F. rétif, fr. L. restare to stay back, withstand, resist. See Rest remainder, and cf. Restiff. ] . Unwilling to go on; obstinate in refusing to move forward; stubborn; drawing back. [ 1913 Webster ]

Restive or resty, drawing back, instead of going forward, as some horses do. E. Philips (1658). [ 1913 Webster ]

The people remarked with awe and wonder that the beasts which were to drag him [ Abraham Holmes ] to the gallows became restive, and went back. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inactive; sluggish. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Impatient under coercion, chastisement, or opposition; refractory. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Uneasy; restless; averse to standing still; fidgeting about; -- applied especially to horses. Trench. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Rest"ive, adv. -- Rest"ive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Stived p. pr. & vb. n. Stiving. ] [ Probably fr. F. estiver to compress, stow, L. stipare: cf. It. stivare, Sp. estivar. Cf. Stevedore, Stiff. ] To stuff; to crowd; to fill full; hence, to make hot and close; to render stifling. Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

His chamber was commonly stived with friends or suitors of one kind or other. Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To be stifled or suffocated. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The floating dust in flour mills caused by the operation or grinding. De Colange. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ D. stuiver; akin to G. stüber, Dan. styver, Sw. styfver. ] A Dutch coin, and money of account, of the value of two cents, or about one penny sterling; hence, figuratively, anything of little worth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. [ OE. See Stew. ] Stews; a brothel. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Containing a suggestion, hint, or intimation. -- Sug*gest"ive*ly, adv. -- Sug*gest"ive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

Treatment by commands or positive statements addressed to a more or less hypnotized patient. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. [ L. tempestivus. ] Seasonable; timely; as, tempestive showers. [ Obs. ] Heywood. -- Tem*pes"tive*ly, adv. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]