lucrative, a.
(ˈl(j)uːkrətɪv)
Also 5 lucratijf, -tyf(e, 6 -tyve.
[ad. L. lucrātīv-us, f. lucrāri to gain.]
1. Yielding gain or profit; gainful, profitable. lucrative office: an office to which compensation is attached.
| 14.. Wyclif's Bible (1850) IV. 684 b, Addit. Prol. Luke, Manye clerkis lernen lucratijf sciencis, to gete richessis. c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 659 An office also hadde I lucratyf. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 237 b, To abstayne from..bodyly labours, & specyally from them that be lucratyue. 1625 Bacon Ess., Usury (Arb.) 544 The Trade of Merchandize, being the most Lucratiue, may beare Vsury at a good Rate. 1725 Broome Notes Pope's Odyss. xiv. 259 III. 350 The more lucrative..method of life by Agriculture. a 1763 Shenstone Ess. Wks. 1765 II. 146 Necessity may be the Mother of lucrative invention. 1777 Robertson Hist. Amer. (1778) I. i. 29 At length, the Soldans of Egypt established a lucrative trade in that port. 1808 Scott Prose Wks. IV. Biographies II. (1870) 37 A lucrative contract warded off the blow for a time. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 388 It became clear that the speculation would be lucrative. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §5. 387 A more lucrative traffic had already begun with the coast of Guinea. |
b. Scots Law. Chiefly in lucrative succession (after L. lucrativa acquisitio, Ulpian Dig. xliv. §4): the acceptance by an heir apparent, in the lifetime of his ancestor, of a free gift of any part of the estate to which he would have succeeded.
To prevent this being done to the defrauding of creditors, the law provides that the ‘lucrative successor’ becomes liable for all the debts of the grantor contracted before the time of the grant.
| 1681 Visct. Stair Instit. iii. vii. (1693) 489 Lucrative Successors, how this passive Title is extended, and how Limited by our Practise..Lucrative Dispositions of any part of the Heretage infer this passive Title. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Lucrative Succession. |
† 2. Of persons, their actions and sentiments: Bent upon or directed towards making of gain; avaricious, covetous. Obs.
| 1549 Latimer 7th Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 53 He requyres no such diligence as the most part of our lucratiue lawyers do vse. 1603 Daniel Epist. to Sir T. Egerton xxiii, To binde the hands of Iustice vp so hard, That lest she falling to prooue Lucratiue Might basely reach them out to take reward. 1630 Donne Serm. xiii. 131 Let not thy prayer be Lucrative nor Vindicative. 1744 Harris Three Treat. Wks. (1841) 52 May we not venture..to pass the same sentence on the lucrative life, as we have already on the political. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 258 Attributed..not to any lucrative view of unnecessarily swelling my book. 1792 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 32 (1794) I. 458 To enter upon..a cure..on which perhaps I should not wish to reside long, would show more of the lucrative mind than the pastoral care. 1797 S. James Narr. Voy. 58 To show what a man will do to compass his lucrative desires. |
Hence ˈlucratively adv., ˈlucrativeness.
| 1726 Leoni tr. Alberti's Archit. I. 37 The Censors, in farming out..Estates, always began with the Lake Lucrinus, because of the Lucrativeness of its Name. 1848 Webster, Lucratively, profitably. 1871 Echo 4 Apr. 1/2 The device..ingeniously and lucratively extricates authorities from a serious difficulty. 1899 Sir G. Douglas Hogg v. 96 His pen being abundantly and lucratively occupied. |