perceptive, a. (n.)
(pəˈsɛptɪv)
[f. L. percept-, ppl. stem of percipĕre to perceive + -ive.]
1. Characterized by or capable of perceiving; pertaining to or having perception; instrumental to perception.
| 1656 Artif. Handsom. 145 They have more perceptive eyes than ever I had. 1678 Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 10 A Body..exquisitely Perceptive of the least Impressions. 1785 Reid Intell. Powers 279 Our active and perceptive powers are improved and perfected by use and exercise. 1877 E. Caird Philos. Kant v. 91 All monads are with Leibnitz perceptive beings. 1897 Watts-Dunton Aylwin ii. ii, Your mother's perceptive faculties are extraordinary. |
b. Of ready perception, intelligent. Also with of.
| 1860 Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. ix. xii. §14 Its great men, whose hearts were kindest, and whose spirits most perceptive of the work of God. 1868 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 396 With an audience so finely perceptive..the labour is much diminished. |
† 2. Perceptible, cognizable. Obs.
| 1754 Edwards Freed. Will iv. ix. (ed. 4) 368 Contrary to the revealed or perceptive Will of God. 1813 T. Busby tr. Lucretius I. iii. 236 When rich wines their essences diffuse,—Or unguents—no perceptive weight they lose. |
B. n.
† 1. One who perceives, a percipient being. Obs. rare. Cf. intelligent B. 1.
| 1694 R. Burthogge Reas. & Nat. Spir. viii. ii. 263 The Original Perceptive is sensible of all, (and needs must, for he that made the Eye must needs see, and he that planted the Ear, must needs hear; and he that gave an heart unto man must needs understand). |
2. pl. The perceptive faculties or organs.
| 1858 H. Spencer Ess. I. 254 The mind..must keep its perceptives active enough to recognise the least easily caught sounds. 1879 G. Meredith Egoist III. ix. 181 By the patient exercise of his quick perceptives. |