▪ I. † conˈtentive, a.1 Obs.
[f. content v. + -ive: cf. inventive.]
Fitted to content; satisfying.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. 80 What a brutish thing it is, howe short lasting, and but a minute contentiue. 1599 Breton Farewell, The Company of a Contentive friend. 1627–77 Feltham Resolves ii. lxvii. 300 They shall find it a more contentive life than idleness. 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xiii. §2. 192 The..true contentive Obiect of the Soule of Man, is God. |
▪ II. † conˈtentive, a.2 Obs.
[a. F. contentif, -ive, that contains, retains (in mod.F. only in the surgical use), f. L. type *contentīv-us, f. continēre to contain: see -ive and cf. retentive.]
Characterized by containing, holding together, maintaining, etc. In Surg. see quot. 1882.
| 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iv. 443 His good wil is the effective, contentive and provisive Virtue. 1758 J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 144, I did not yet remove the contentive Compress. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex., Contentive, the same as Retentive, applied to bandages which retain the lips of a wound, or the ends of fractured bones in apposition. |