nutritive, a. and n.
(ˈnjuːtrɪtɪv)
Also 5–6 nutrytive (5 -tiff, -tyf), 5 nutritiff, -tyf; 6–7 nutritiue.
[a. F. nutritif, -ive, = Sp., Pg., and It. nutritivo, ad. med.L. nūtrītīv-us, f. ppl. stem of nūtrīre to nourish: see -ive.]
A. adj.
1. Having the property of nourishing; nutritious, nutrimental.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 195 Which sesoun is to flewme nutritiff. c 1440 ― Hors, Shepe & G. 376 Holsom is moton:..Ful nutritiff aftir a gret accesse. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. xl. 60 The physycyens counseylled her that she sholde ete metes more nutrytyf. 1566 Drant Horace, Sat. i. iv. G viij, Egges longe and whyte be nutritiue muche better then the rounde. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 567 The broth of Limpins, Muscles, Cockles and Wilkes, is verie nutritive, and maketh them fat that use it. 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 513 The Humours..in all Animals are Nutritive. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 85, I had reason to believe it did in some Measure prove Nutritive. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. §2. 342 We infer that the Bread before us is nutritive and wholesome. 1842 Combe Digestion 63 Both the chyle and the venous blood are converted into red, arterial, or nutritive blood. 1881 Tyndall Ess. Floating Matter Air 215 In the case of very nutritive infusions..the interval ought to be shorter. |
| fig. 1654 Jer. Taylor Real Pres. 61 He is nutritive in all the ways of spiritual manducation. 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 19 Throughout our city nutritive of arts. |
2. Of, pertaining to, or concerned in, nutrition.
| c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 96 Of strengthe nutrityf, and infirmatyf, and sustantyf. 1546 Langley tr. Pol. Verg. de Invent. i. iii. 5 The Riuer Nilus..hath in it selfe naturally a certain power nutrytiue. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 171 Admonishing us of alition, and the work of the Nutritive Faculty. 1658 Manton Expos. Jude ii, Life hath a nutritive appetite joined with it. a 1716 South Serm. (1744) IX. ii. 44 The hidden nutritive power of the Divine Benediction being withheld. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Introd., The qualities which they possess for nutritive or medicinal purposes. 1849 Balfour Man. Bot. §43 These Compound Organs may be divided into Nutritive, or those concerned in the nourishment of the plant. 1871 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 79 The circular marginal canal into which the nutritive tubes, radiating from the stomach, empty themselves. 1894 H. Drummond Ascent Man 326 Defective nutritive conditions produce males. |
3. Giving or providing nourishment.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Rich. III 55 b, Suche as made warre for the welthe and tuycyon of ther awne naturall and nutritive countrey. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1304 The Stoicks..holde that the generative and nutritive Spirit, is Bacchus. 1667 J. Flavel Saint Indeed (1754) 40 He was pitied by a Lord of Italy, who..wished him to be more careful and nutritive of his person. 1881 Lankester in Encycl. Brit. XII. 554/2 In the Siphonophora, in addition to nutritive (hydriform) persons and generative (medusiform) persons, there may be rows of swimming-bells. |
B. n. A nourishing article of food.
| a 1440 Burgh Cato 617 Reffressheth you with this holsom diete... To your persone me thynkith it ful meete For to receyue such a nutrytiue. 1601 Holland Pliny II. Index. 1638 Rawley tr. Bacon's Life & Death (1650) 50 Things alike in Substance, to the Body of Man, are, Nutritives; Fat Fleshes. 1699 Burnet 39 Art. xxv. 283 An abstinence which is made up with other delicious and inflaming Nutritives. 1896 Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 414 All are found in some respects to be faulty as nutritives. |
Hence
ˈnutritively adv.;
ˈnutritiveness.
| 1727 Bailey (vol. II.), Nutritiveness. 1847 in Webster. 1856 Orr's Circ. Sci., Pract. Chem. 341 Pigeons and fowls, however, surpass beef in nutritiveness. 1889 Harper's Mag. June 60/2 He had been eating nutritively of the tree of artistic knowledge. |