extensive, a.
(ɛkˈstɛnsɪv)
[ad. late L. extensīv-us, f. extendĕre (pa. pple. extensus): see extend and -ive. Cf. F. extensif.]
† 1. Capable of being extended; extensible. Obs.
| 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. iii, These two [sulphur and mercury] Make the rest ductile, malleable, extensiue. 1656 in Blount Glossogr. a 1691 Boyle (J.), Silver beaters chuse the finest coin, as..most extensive under the hammer. |
† 2. a. Tending to cause extension or stretching out. Obs. rare—1.
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. i. 105 Station is..one kinde of motion..which Physitians..doe name extensive or tonicall. |
b. That has the effect of extending or enlarging in scope.
| 1832 Austin Jurispr. (1879) II. xxxiii. 597 This bastard extensive interpretation ex ratione juris is frequently styled ‘analogical’. |
3. a. Of material things: Extending over or occupying a large surface or space; having a wide extent, widely extended. Of capital, purchases, etc.: Large in amount.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Extensive..that Extends, or Reaches far. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 357 The extensive plantations..round his lands. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. i. iii. I. 19 By means of water-carriage a more extensive market is opened. 1845 Budd Dis. Liver 28 Along the extensive mucous tract..absorption is constantly going on. 1849–50 Alison Hist. Europe VII. xlii. §53. 134 Extensive capital had..been sunk in the traffic. a 1859 Macaulay Hist. Eng. V. xxiii. 71 That empire..was the most extensive that had ever obeyed a single chief. 1872 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 283 Extensive silver veins and deposits. |
b. Of immaterial things: Far-reaching, large in comprehension or scope; wide in application or operation; comprehensive; also, lengthy, full of detail. † extensive to: that extends to, applicable to, comprehensive of.
| 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §5 The reprehension of Saint Paul was..extensive to all knowledge. 1651 Baxter Inf. Bapt. 105, I am bound to take scripture in the most extensive sence. a 1748 Watts Improv. Mind ii. i, An extensive survey of the branches of any science. 1754 Edwards Freed. Will iii. iv. 165 Inability..may be more general and extensive to all Acts of that Kind. 1756 Burke Vind. Nat. Soc. Wks. 1842 I. 14 A piece of flagrant and extensive wickedness. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. p. ix, Our limits will not permit us to indulge in extensive quotation. 1863 H. Cox Instit. iii. viii. 705 The Mutiny Act constitutes an extensive code of martial law. |
c. So of persons, their faculties, etc. Obs. or rare.
| a 1631 Donne 6 Serm. i. (1634) 2 A Livie or a Guicciardine or such extensive and voluminous authours. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. vi. 128 He was extensive in his charity. 1725 Pope Odyss. xi. 138 The God of day, Who all surveys with his extensive eye. 1749 Berkeley Word to Wise Wks. III. 448 Idleness, that extensive parent of many miseries and many sins. 1768 Gilpin Ess. Prints 67 In a word, he was..a Man of a very extensive genius. |
d. Econ. Applied to methods of cultivation in which a relatively small crop is obtained from a large area with a minimum of attention and expense; opp. intensive a. 5.
| 1832 [see intensive a. 5]. 1949 P. E. James Geogr. of Man 60 Where the expenditure of labor and capital per unit of land is relatively small, the economy is said to be extensive. |
4. Of or pertaining to extension (in sense 7 b); characterized by, or possessed of, extension; occupying space.
| 1624 Gataker Transubst. 114 Unlesse his bodie had therein a corporall, extensive and sensible manner of existing. 1877 E. Caird Philos. Kant ii. xi. 442 Space and time are necessarily represented as extensive quanta. 1886 J. Ward in Encycl. Brit. XX. 53 We do not first experience a succession of touches..by means of movements, and then, when these impressions are simultaneously presented, regard them as extensive because they are associated with..the original series of movements. |
5. Of or pertaining to extension (in sense 8 b); denoting a large number of objects. Opposed to intensive.
| 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies ii. xiii. 333 This haps mostly when there wants of Assistance, Extensive or Intensive. 1725 Watts Logic i. vi. §13 This Art teaches us to distribute any extensive Idea into its different Kinds or Species. 1837–8 Sir W. Hamilton Logic xv. (1866) I. 272 Every notion has not only an Extensive, but likewise an Intensive quantity. |