attritive

English

Etymology

attrit + -ive. From attrition

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /əˈtɹaɪtɪv/

Adjective

attritive (comparative more attritive, superlative most attritive)

  1. Causing attrition.
    • 1858, Hugh Miller, Rambles of a Geologist, Chapter 5, in The Cruise of the Betsey; with Rambles of a Geologist, Edinburgh: Constable, p. 302,
      [] the clay [] had gradually been moulded, under the attritive influences of the elements, into series of alternating ridges and furrows,
    • 1936, William Faulkner, chapter 5, in Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Random House:
      Do you mark how the wistaria, sun-impacted on this wall here, distills and penetrates this room as though (light-unimpeded) by secret and attritive progress from mote to mote of obscurity’s myriad components?
    • 1999, Christopher New, chapter 9, in Philosophy of Literature, London: Routledge, page 135:
      That certain works did thus survive time’s attritive passage, and that people did continue to agree in their estimation of them would by no means show [] that their judgments were both objective and correct.
    • 2009 September 6, Tom Vanderbilt, “Up From Calamity”, in New York Times:
      From a nearby town came “crews of eager young men” who “pitched in” through the “attritive, swirling, arctic-like night.”

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