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inventive, a.|ɪnˈvɛntɪv|
[a. OF. inventif, -ive (15th c. in Godef. Compl.) = It. inventivo; ad. L. type *inventīv-us, f. invent-, ppl. stem of invenīre to invent: see -ive.]
1. Having the faculty of invention; apt or quick to invent; original in contriving or devising.
c1450Lydg. Secrees 144 Alle othir Reemys in philosophye It doth excelle and of hih Reson Is moost inventyff. c1470G. Ashby Active Policy 12 A personne, lerned and Inuentif. a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 115 Those that haue ye inuentiuest heades. 1662Evelyn Chalcogr. 34 Never hit upon among the Greeks and inventive Romans. 1765Burke Hints Drama Wks. 1842 II. 500 By the inventive genius, I mean the creator of agreeable facts and incidents. 1879H. George Progr. & Pov. x. iii. (1881) 473 No slaveholding people were ever an inventive people.
b. Const. of.
1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 252 He was passing ingenious and inventive of matter. 1834H. Martineau Demerara iv. 46 Not a slave on the plantation was so inventive of excuses. 1869Adam Smith's W.N. I. i. vi. 50 note, This labour..is inventive of mechanical expedients.
2. Characterized by invention; produced by or showing original contrivance.
1601Holland Pliny II. 535 A notable picture..the deuise whereof was passing full of wit, and verie inuentiue. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxxv, Treated with every circumstance of inventive mockery and insult. 1856Ruskin Mod. Paint. III. iv. iii. §21 The last characteristic of great art is that it must be inventive, that is, be produced by the imagination.
†3. Invented, made up, fictitious. Obs.
1612Warner (title) Albion's England; a continued historie of the same Kingdome..not barren in varietie of inventive and historicall intermixtures. 1673[R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 42 The absurdity of his inventive Divinity. |