interpretative, a.
(ɪnˈtɜːprɪteɪtɪv)
[f. L. interpretāt-, ppl. stem of interpretārī to interpret + -ive. Cf. F. interprétatif (1752 in Hatz.-Darm.) and obs. F. interprétativement (Godef. Compl.).]
1. Having the character, quality, or function of interpreting; serving to set forth the meaning (of something); explanatory, expository.
| 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes xcvii. 171 b, The true diuinitee..also is deuided in two partes: for the one is Propheticall, the other Interpretatiue. a 1638 Mede Rever. God's Ho. i. Wks. (1672) ii. 344 That interpretative expression used in the New Testament of the Lord's descent upon Mount Sinai. 1737 Waterland Eucharist 98 These are not mere Allusions to the Sacrifices of the Old Testament, but they are interpretative of them. 1755 Johnson Pref. Dict. ¶48 The rigour of interpretative lexicography requires that the explanation, and the word explained, should be always reciprocal. 1865 M. Arnold Ess. Crit. iii. 80 The grand power of poetry is its interpretative power. 1882 Harper's Mag. LXV. 57 One of the new interpretative composers. 1884 American VII. 337 All that is fairly implied in it as interpretative of the Constitution. |
2. Deduced or deducible by interpretation or inference; inferential, constructive, implicit, virtual. arch. or Obs.
| 1610 Donne Pseudo-martyr 349 This is accounted an interpretatiue periury. a 1614 ― βιαθανατος (1644) 151 Though concurrence of Examples, and either an expresse or interpretative approbation of them..bee equivalent to a Rule. a 1659 Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) I. xxvii. 352 'Tis an implicit, virtual, interpretative Atheism and Denial. 1798 in Dallas Amer. Law Rep. II. 250 Constructive, or interpretative treasons, must be the dread and scourge of any nation that allows them. 1870 J. H. Newman Gram. Assent ii. vii. 204, I will call simple assent material certitude; or, to use a still more apposite term for it, interpretative certitude. |