| / English Dictionary |
EXPRESSIVE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Characterized by expression
Example:
a very expressive face
Classified under:
Similar:
communicative; communicatory (able or tending to communicate)
Derivation:
express (articulate; either verbally or with a cry, shout, or noise)
express (give expression to)
express (serve as a means for expressing something)
expressiveness (the quality of being expressive)
Context examples:
And he looked at Fanny with an expressive smile, which evidently meant, “That lady will never allow a theatre at Everingham.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Mrs. Dashwood was sorry for what she had said; but it gave Elinor pleasure, as it produced a reply from Marianne so expressive of confidence in Willoughby and knowledge of his intentions.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Mrs. Gardiner, who was walking arm-in-arm with Elizabeth, gave her a look expressive of wonder.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Emma listened, and looked, and soon perceived that Frank Churchill's state might be best defined by the expressive phrase of being out of humour.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
As he said this his countenance became expressive of a calm, settled grief that touched me to the heart.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
An aphasia characterized by impairment of expressive language (speech, writing, signs) and relative preservation of receptive language abilities (i.e., comprehension).
(Broca's Aphasia, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
They had 'significantly' lower expressive language, defined as how a person expresses their thoughts and feelings.
(Too Much Screen Time Changes Structure of Toddlers' Brains, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
“Though unmusical, German is the most expressive of all languages,” he observed when Von Bork had stopped from pure exhaustion.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Well, my love, I consider him a trump, in the fullest sense of that expressive word, but I do wish he was a little younger and a good deal richer.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
His opinion of Louisa Musgrove's inferiority, an opinion which he had seemed solicitous to give, his wonder at Captain Benwick, his feelings as to a first, strong attachment; sentences begun which he could not finish, his half averted eyes and more than half expressive glance, all, all declared that he had a heart returning to her at least; that anger, resentment, avoidance, were no more; and that they were succeeded, not merely by friendship and regard, but by the tenderness of the past.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
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