attritive

English

Etymology

From 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.”

Related terms

• attritional

Anagrams

• titrative