progressive, a. (n.)
(prəʊˈgrɛsɪv)
[a. F. progressif, -ive (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), f. L. prōgress-: see progress v. and -ive.]
A. adj.
1. a. Characterized by stepping, walking, or otherwise moving onward, as in the locomotion of men and animals generally; executed, as a movement, in this way. Obs. or merged in b.
| 1644 Bulwer Chirol. 83 In matters of progressive motion. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 193 In progressive motion, the armes and legs doe move successively, but in natation both together. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 173 Their ascent so easy, as to be almost imperceptible to the progressive traveller. 1816 Sir E. Home in Phil. Trans. 149 Some account of the feet of those animals whose progressive motion can be carried on in opposition to gravity. |
b. generally. Moving forward or advancing (in space); of the nature of onward motion.
| 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 127 Thir [the planets'] wandring course..Progressive, retrograde, or standing still. 1728 Pemberton Newton's Philos. 195 The moon..would..have partook of all the progressive motion of the earth. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing v. 305 Water, when smooth, and having none but its progressive motion, reflects the surrounding objects. |
2. a. Passing on from one member or item of a series to the next; proceeding step by step; occurring one after another, successive.
| 1620 T. Granger Div. Logike 178 Concerning progressiue suppartition of members [marg. Diuiding of parts into parts]. 1703 Virgil's 4th Eclogue 2 Behold the Mighty Months Progressive Shine. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 41 ¶5 That the idea of the one was impressed at once, and continued through all the progressive descents of the species, without variation or improvement. 1811 Busby Dict. Mus., Progressive Notes, those notes which succeed each other, either in ascent or descent. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. II. 34 Pictures, arranged..in a progressive series, with reference to the date of the painters. |
b. Applied to certain games, as euchre or whist, when played by several sets of players simultaneously at different tables, certain players passing after each round from one table to the next, according to specified rules.
| 1875 W. B. Dick Amer. Hoyle (ed. 10) 56 There is another variety to be met with occasionally, which may be styled ‘Progressive Jack-Pots’. 1885 C. M. Seaver (title) Standard guide to progressive euchre. 1886 I. M. Rittenhouse Maud (1939) 366 So we had a jolly little time, playing progressive eucher, and indulging in some music. 1888 A. Randall-Diehl Two Thousand Words 169 Progressive euchre, a game of cards in which a player starts at one table, among the several scattered about the room. If he wins at the first table, he passes on to the next, and is credited with one game. If he wins again, he moves forward one table. 1890 Daily News 29 Sept. 5/4 The City Marshal of Leavenworth, Kansas, has announced that he will henceforth arrest..all persons found playing progressive euchre. 1903 R. Brooke Let. 27 Dec. (1968) 5, I am going to have quite a gay time this week—progressive whist, fancy dress-balls etc. 1904 Bridge & Progressive Bridge 25 Progressive Bridge... The Rules of Bridge apply except that no account is taken of games or rubbers. 1906 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Jan. 15/1 Mrs. Piggott entertained a number of her lady friends..progressive five hundred being the amusement. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 361/1 At Home. Progressive Hearts ― o'clock. R.S.V.P. Progressive Bridge..Progressive Whist. 1926 R. Macaulay Crewe Train ii. v. 118 Do you enjoy whist?.. We have very nice progressive drives on Wednesday nights. 1963 M. Kendon Ladies' College Goudhurst 20 In 1905 the girls were asked..for an evening of Progressive games. |
c. progressive assimilation, in Philol. the process whereby a sound is modified by or harmonized with one closely preceding it.
| 1915 G. Noël-Armfield Gen. Phonetics ix. 32 If the first sound carries its influence forward the assimilation is said to be progressive. 1934 M. K. Pope From Latin to Mod. French ii. i. 64 Assimilations and dissimilations may be either regressive or progressive, i.e. a sound may be modified in anticipation of a sound following, or the articulatory position of one sound may modify the pronunciation of a later one. 1939 L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. iii. 68 Assimilation may..be either progressive, when the first phoneme modifies the second,..or regressive, when the second modifies the first. 1964 C. Barber Ling. Change Present-Day Eng. iii. 63 A historical example of progressive assimilation is seen in words like watch.., where the rounded vowel..is the result of the influence of the preceding w. 1977 Canad. Jrnl. Linguistics 1976 XXI. i. 124 Chapter 5..shows..the action of progressive and regressive assimilation in triggering errors. |
d. progressive proofs (see quot. 1960).
| 1932 Place & Clunes Letterpress Printing xiv. 247 Block-Maker's Progressive Proofs. The colour sheets of ‘progressives’ provided by the process block-maker must be followed with absolute exactitude. 1948 R. Karch Graphic Arts Procedures vii. 221 The two preceding pages show ‘progressive proofs’ and the final result of four-color process printing. 1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. of Bk. 331/1 Progressive proofs, the proofs made in colour-printing as a guide to shade and registration. Each colour is shown separately and imposed on the preceding ones. |
e. Psychol. Progressive Matrices (see Raven).
| 1939 Brit. Jrnl. Med. Psychol. XVIII. 16 Progressive Matrices (Sets A, B, C, D and E 1938) obtainable from Messrs H. K. Lewis & Co. 1948 Psychometrika XIII. 36 In Sets E and D of the Progressive Matrices, the speed with which certain details are perceived seems to be important for the solution. Ibid. 41 The Progressive Matrices are loaded in several factors, plus a factor common to all of them. 1954 A. Anastasi Psychol. Testing x. 261 The Progressive Matrices Test, developed in England by Raven..should also be included... This test, designed as a measure of Spearman's g factor, requires primarily the eduction of relationships within abstract material. |
3. Characterized by progress or advance (in state or condition). a. Of persons or communities: Making progress, advancing (in action, thought, character, fortunes, social conditions, etc.).
| 1607–12 Bacon Ess., Ambition (Arb.) 222 It is good for Princes, if they vse ambitious Men, to handle it soe, as they be still progressive, and not retrograde... For if they rise not with theire service, they will take order to make theire service fall with them. 1628 Feltham Resolves ii. [i.] lxxxix. 258 He is not truely penitent, that is not progressiue, in the Motion of aspiring goodnesse. 1853 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. iv. 187 Whatever be the natural excellences of the Turks, progressive they are not. 1857 Buckle Civiliz. I. viii. 555 For a progressive nation, there is required a progressive policy. 1859 Mill Liberty iii. 127 A people..may be progressive for a certain length of time, and then stop. |
b. Of things, conditions, etc.: Characterized by progress or passing on to more advanced or higher stages; growing, increasing, developing; usually in good sense: advancing towards better conditions; marked by continuous improvement.
| a 1653 Binning Serm. (1845) 235 The life as well as the light of the righteous is progressive. 1732 Pope Ess. Man i. 235 Above, how high progressive life may go! 1742 Young Nt. Th. vii. 81 Reason progressive, Instinct is complete. 1811 Busby Dict. Mus., Progressive, an epithet..applied to lessons expressly composed for the purpose of practical improvement, and..so constructed in point of increasing execution, as to lead..by insensible degrees to those difficulties [etc.]. 1859 C. Barker Assoc. Princ. ii. 45 During the fifteenth century commerce continued to be regularly and rapidly progressive. 1884 F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sc. vi. 182 He had to teach that the creation was not merely orderly, but progressive. |
c. Path. Of a disease: Continuously increasing in severity or extent.
| 1736 Butler Anal. i. i. Wks. 1874 I. 29 Thinking that a progressive disease..will destroy those powers. 1877 tr. von Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVI. 647 In progressive pernicious anæmia unusual corpulence has been observed. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 695 Progressive dementia with general paralysis. |
d. transf. Characterizing or indicating progress.
| 1888 Amer. Anthropologist I. 71 Ecker..considers that unusual length [of the index-finger] is a progressive character. |
e. Educ. Of teaching methods, types of schools, etc.: aiming to develop individual capability and character in children rather than to achieve standardized results.
| 1839 tr. A. Necker de Saussure (title) Progressive education. 1910 Chesterton G. B. Shaw 185 Shaw has always made this one immense mistake (arising out of that bad progressive education of his), the mistake of treating convention as a dead thing. 1924 Progressive Education Apr. 3 The Progressive Schools are increasing rapidly. 1943 [see essentialist adj.]. 1946 E. Hodgins Mr. Blandings builds his Dream House (1947) 22 The creative, anarchistic, and sexual freedoms of a progressive school. 1959 Listener 5 Feb. 244/1 A man who tries to exercise authority in the manner of a sergeant-major will get short shrift in a progressive school. 1967 Guardian 14 Oct. 8/4 The Progressive Education Association founded..in 1915, had done its work so well that it was dissolved in 1955. 1976 Listener 29 Apr. 526/1 Anxious children did particularly poorly in a progressive classroom. |
f. Of taxation: (see quot. 1902).
| 1889 G. B. Shaw Fabian Ess. Socialism 193 The Radical progressive income taxers singing together, and the ratepaying tenants shouting for joy. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 197/2 The question whether the burden of taxation should not be progressive—the proportion of the sum taken by the state from the tax-payers increasing with the wealth of the individual. Ibid. 199/1 A general system of progressive taxation. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 21 Aug. 3/2 By using the progressive income-tax structure, state and local governments are placing the burden back on those hardest hit by raising regressive local taxes. 1978 Times 18 July 15/5 Progressive taxation is imposed in this country in order to moderate the unequal distribution of income. |
g. progressive kiln, a long kiln through which timber to be dried is slowly passed on trucks.
| 1920 A. L. Howard Manual of Timbers of World 397 In all progressive kilns the timber is piled on trucks, and moved at regular intervals through zones of varying temperature and humidity. 1971 Timber Trades Jrnl. 14 Aug. 26/1 Small mills naturally use compartment kilns for export drying, but a progressive kiln will now pay off at 60m3 per day and offers lower consumption of heating fuel and electricity. |
h. Gram. = expanded ppl. a. 2 b.
| 1924 H. E. Palmer Gram. Spoken Eng. ii. 149 Tenses composed of the verb (biː) and the Ing-form are called Progressive Tenses. 1932 Jrnl. Eng. & Gmc. Philol. XXXI. 252 The creation of the progressive form resulted from the desire to express the idea of progressive action, action going on: ‘He is writing a letter to his mother.’ 1946 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1945 130 The distinction between the ‘terminate’ and the ‘progressive’ aspects of the verb, e.g. I go/am going, do you go/are you going? 1957 R. W. Zandvoort Handbk. Eng. Gram. i. ii. 36 What was said..of the imperfective or durative aspect of the present participle also applies to its predicative use, as in The ships were sailing out of the harbour. This construction..is known as the Progressive, because it usually denotes an action or an activity as in progress. 1959 Brno Studies in English I. 13 Mod E progressive tenses must be regarded as marked counterparts of the simple tenses. 1965 N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax ii. 64 Frighten is a Transitive Verb..; it takes Progressive Aspect freely. |
i. Of music: modern, experimental, innovatory, avant-garde; used with reference to several distinct musical developments, as progressive jazz, progressive pop, progressive rock, etc.
| 1947 Down Beat 13 Aug. 1/4 Stan Kenton next month returns to the band business... First recordings will be for an album to be titled Concert in Progressive Jazz. Ibid. 19 Nov. 1/5 Stan..abhorred references to his music as ‘jazz’, himself using the descriptive phrase ‘progressive jazz’. 1950 S. Kenton in Metronome July 23/1 In modern and progressive jazz and bebop there is such an urge today for new harmonic sounds..that the music has suffered. 1952 B. Ulanov Hist. Jazz in Amer. xiii. 141 The movement that is variously labeled ‘progressive’ or ‘modern’ or ‘new’ jazz is a New York movement. 1958 in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz xvii. 213 June Christy..might have persuaded the band to swing instead of exploiting these weary, ‘progressive’ jazz harmonies so thoroughly explored by Stravinsky some forty years ago. 1959 ‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene vi. 117 Leading ‘progressive’ players like the pianist Lennie Tristano. 1963 R. I. McDavid Mencken's Amer. Lang. 744 It [sc. funk] also designates progressive bop containing a strong blues element which marks its Negro origin. 1970 E. Lee Music of People vii. 147 A new style has arisen, usually called ‘progressive pop’, which is of such musicality that it has been heralded by some critics as a new form of art music. 1975 New Yorker 21 Apr. 7/1 (Advt.), Head⁓hunters, a progressive disco-jazz quintet created in Herbie Hancock's image. 1977 It May 26/3 Patti wrote this heavy condemnation of ‘progressive’ rock radio as we hear it now. |
4. a. Favouring, advocating, or directing one's efforts towards progress or reform, esp. in political, municipal, or social matters.
Used from c 1889 as a party term in municipal politics, esp. in London, to include those who were liberal or reforming in municipal and social questions, though they might not support the Liberal party in national or imperial questions. In South Africa the self-adopted appellation of those who opposed the Bond or Africander party, corresponding orig. to the British party as opposed to the Dutch.
More recently in South Africa, designating several political parties committed to a policy of multi-racialism; also, freq. a name or term adopted by radical, left-wing, or communist parties.
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 8 Jan. 8/1 The Progressive Brahmans, or, as they call their church, the ‘Brahma Somaj of India’. 1889 Ibid. 30 Jan. 2/2 From the point of view of the Progressive majority, this is the only way to make the seat secure. 1897 Daily News 24 July 5/2 Progressive Conservatism is to adopt Liberal principles, and say they were always your own. 1898 Ld. Rosebery ibid. 2 Mar. 4/6 One very simple demonstration of how carefully the Progressive party have cut themselves aloof from Imperial politics. 1930 W. K. Hancock Australia viii. 163 The area to be developed was also within constituencies held by the Country Progressive party, on whose support the Victorian Government was dependent. 1954 Manch. Guardian Weekly 16 Sept. 3/3 The ludicrous and largely Communist-dominated ‘Progressive Party’ campaign of 1946. 1955 Treatm. Brit. P.O.W.'s in Korea (H.M.S.O.) 4 The ‘progressive’ view—the Communist view—was the only one allowed. 1969 A. G. Frank Latin Amer. xxii. 269 Concerned and progressive people everywhere scrutinize these..laws, and often criticize them. 1971 Progress (Cape Town) May 5/4 There had been talk of a split for a long time; the Press had even coined the term the ‘Progressive Group’ of the United Party. 1976 R. Williams Keywords 207 Nearly all political tendencies now wish to be described as progressive, but..it is more frequently now a persuasive than a descriptive term. |
b. Characterized by (the desire to promote) change, innovation, or experiment; avant-garde, advanced, ‘liberal’.
| 1908 H. G. Wells War in Air ii. 35 It was always a very rhetorical and often trying affair, but in these progressive times you have to make a noise to get a living. 1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar i. 11 The great house in the park was a boarding-school for the unmanageable children of parents with progressive ideas and large bank accounts. 1953 M. McCarthy Groves of Academe i. 4 In a progressive community where the casserole and the cocktail and the disposable diaper reigned. 1956 [see labour n. 2 c]. 1974 Howard Jrnl. XIV. 99 The Rev. W. D. Morrison, whose outspoken views in the 1890s led to the most progressive document on prison reform since the writing of John Howard himself. 1976 Church Times 27 Aug. 6/5 There was something either in those particular temperaments or in the ‘progressive’ ethos, that militated against contentment. |
5. Comb., as progressive-minded adj.
| 1955 Koestler Trail of Dinosaur 206 The worshippers of tyranny and terror usurp the rightful place of a truly progressive party and cunningly direct the energies of the progressive-minded into ‘anti-Fascist’ crusades. 1975 A. Bergman Hollywood & Le Vine v. 60 A bad time for progressive-minded people. |
B. n.
1. One who favours, advocates, or aims at progress or reform, or claims to be in favour of it. (See note to A. 4.)
| 1865 Bushnell Vicar. Sacr. iii. v. 277 The disappointment I may inflict on certain progressives, or disciples of the New Gospel. 1884 Pall Mall G. 8 Jan. 8/1 Henceforth the two parties of the Brahmans were known as the Conservatives and the Progressives. 1892 Ld. Rosebery in Daily News 2 Mar. 2/6, I meant that there were Progressives who are not Liberals, but that I think there are no Liberals who are not Progressives. 1894 Athenæum 7 July 23/1 An attractive sketch of a Progressive of the epoch of the reforms of Alexander II. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 19 Nov. 2/2 The Cape will shortly be polled again, and it seems..that the result will be to give the Progressives a very small majority. 1921 J. R. Hornady Bk. of Birmingham ii. 27 In the North we divide; there you will find Republicans, Democrats, Progressives, Independents, and so forth. 1954 Britannica Bk. of Year 638/1 Awareness of Communist thought produced the word..Progressive, a Communist sympathizer. 1955 Treatm. Brit. P.O.W.'s in Korea (H.M.S.O.) 15 ‘Progressives’ were soon given a major rôle to play as mouthpieces of Communist propaganda. 1958 Listener 4 Dec. 941/1 The true Progressive was essentially urban and middle class. 1970 Cape Times 28 Oct. 1/1 The United Party has been a bit bitter about the Progressives, believing that they should not exist. 1971 Rand Daily Mail 4 Dec. 1/1 Mr. Bill Carr's decision to seek election to the Johannesburg City Council as a Progressive is more than just a coup for that particular party. 1976 Times 7 Aug. 12/2 When progressives seem to behave like theological scrap merchants, swopping bits and pieces in the ecumenical marketplace according to their fancy, clucking noises of disapproval are heard from the Vatican. |
2. pl. Shortened from progressive proofs (sense A. 2 d).
| 1923 H. A. Maddox Printing x. 125 A final set of colour proofs (progressives) is prepared for the guidance of the printer. 1932 [see sense A 2 d]. |
3. One who favours, advocates, or practises progressive (sense A. 3 e) educational methods.
| 1936 H. G. Wells Anat. Frustration viii. 73 The ‘natural virtue’ schools of such educational ‘progressives’ as Neill and his associates. 1944 H. Croome You've gone Astray xvi. 168 You may know the true progressive..by the fact that he calls children not boys and girls, but ‘kids’. 1961 Curtis & Boultwood Short Hist. Educ. Ideas (ed. 3) xx. 578 Pleas by the Progressives for activity methods, informal learning, and the encouragement of self-discipline and initiative. 1969 M. Ash Who are Progressives Now? i. 23 Of still greater gall to the old-style progressive at the Dartington Colloquy..was the pervasive belief of some others present, that by a well-meant concession to the independent progressive schools a niche could be found for them in the State system as recipients of..difficult children. 1976 Times 26 Apr. 13/3 In the past the debate between traditionalists and progressives in education has often taken place on the abstruse and abstract plane of educational philosophy. |
4. Gram. Shortened from progressive form, tense, etc. (sense A. 3 h).
| 1961 R. B. Long Sentence & its Parts v. 127 The point of view is internal, as with all progressives. 1965 N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax 216 Such Verbs as own..occur freely with or without Progressive. 1978 Language LIV. 418 Half of his discussion of imperfectivity (32–40) is devoted largely to an examination of the English progressive in which it is clear that he is arguing from form to meaning, rather than the reverse. |