reprehensive, a.
(rɛprɪˈhɛnsɪv)
[f. reprehend v.; cf. comprehensive, etc., and obs. F. reprehensif, -ive (Godef.).]
Of the nature of reprehension; containing reproof. Now rare.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xiii. (Arb.) 46 The said auncient Poets vsed for that purpose, three kinds of poems reprehensiue. 1592 Nobody & Someb. in Simpson Sch. Shaks. (1878) I. 299 What I did speake in reprehensive sort. 1609 Bp. W. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 22 He answereth by an Interrogation, such as the Rhetoricians call..a question reprehensiue. 1671 Woodhead St. Teresa i. Pref. 4 Words consolatory, Instructive, Reprehensive. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. xl. 231, I give you sincere thanks for every line of your reprehensive letters. 1825 Culbertson Lect. Revel. xii. 160 The body of this epistle consists of two parts; one of which is commendatory, and the other reprehensive. 1845 A. Duncan Disc. 159 The benignity of the Deity became a reprehensive witness, reproving and condemning their errors. |
Hence repreˈhensively adv.
| 1631 Celestina Ep. Ded. A iij b, Sithence it is written reprehensively, and not instructively. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 226 Xenophanes..reprehensively admonished the Egyptians after this manner. |