permissive
/pəˈmɪsɪv
/adjective
1Allowing or characterized by great or excessive freedom of behaviour: a permissive parent the permissive society of the 60s and 70s...
- We seem to be living in a much more permissive society than our parents and grandparents did.
- We live in a society today far more permissive than the one my parents grew up in.
- Two men, you might argue, played a much greater part in creating the permissive, liberal society, and neither of them were baby boomers.
Synonyms
liberal, broad-minded, open-minded, non-restrictive, free, free and easy, easy-going, live-and-let-live, latitudinarian, laissez-faire, libertarian, unprescriptive, unrestricted, tolerant, forbearing, indulgent, lenient;
overindulgent, lax, soft
2 Law Allowed but not obligatory; optional: the Hague Convention was permissive, not mandatory...
- The legislation is permissive, not mandatory.
- It is, however, to be noted that the power under s.14 is permissive and discretionary.
- The courts have held that, where the applicable legislation is permissive, an employer's right to take a contribution holiday will be determined by the provisions of the Plan.
2.1Denoting a path available for public use by the landowner’s consent, not as a legal right of way: using permissive footpaths, you can visit meadows on both the banks of the river...
- The complete route is along public rights of way, permissive paths and in an open access area.
- After a day of gentle climbs there is the need to get back up the top of Cawthorne Bank which is done via a nice permissive path up through woods.
- Ignore the first gate but go through the second and follow a permissive path which leads straight along the river bank.
3 Biology Allowing a biological or biochemical process to occur: the mutants grow well at the permissive temperature...
- Incubation was at permissive temperatures for 3 days.
- Cells were grown at a permissive temperature to midlog phase and then shifted to restrictive temperature.
- Cells incubated at the permissive temperature demonstrated the typical ‘hill and valley’ appearance.
Derivatives
permissively
/ adverb ...- The technology has numerous other uses, significantly reducing the distribution costs of public domain and permissively shared art and speech.
- A permissively raised ‘me’ generation that was brought up to think only of itself is bringing back the rule book now that it has children of its own.
- If powers are precisely rather than permissively formulated, procedures to render visible occasions of use are constructed.
Origin
Late 15th century (in the sense 'tolerated, allowed'): from Old French, or from medieval Latin permissivus, from permiss- 'allowed', from the verb permittere (see permit1).