Incessive
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Intense and active.
"In both species it is impossible for the eye to follow the incessive movements of the feet, and to compare them with those of other quadrupeds, but from their chrono-photographic images it is easy to see that, taking the order of the movements of the limbs as a standard, the lizards are trotting animals."
- 2 Fierce; cruel and aggressive.
"What strange lessons of preistly domination do we read in the institutions of Knights Templar, the preaching of Crusades against the Infidel, and those bitter, incessive dissensions between kings and popes !"
- 3 Continual or successive; unceasing.
"Some Northern Murdochs may be of the same stock of the Murthacs of Rothes, heirs of the Pollocks, and progenitors through incessive heiresses of the Watsons and Leslies of Rothes."
- 4 Tending to incite or inflame; incensive.
"There is an incessive bravery about the book, that tells you at once that the writer is in the deepest sympathy with the great soul whem he portrays, and the cause for which the martyred one bled."
- 5 Insightful; deep and succinct; incisive.
"We suppose cold, clear, incessive, and formal reasoning; the expression of the greatest possible amount of truth in the simplest and fewish possible words, and the avoidance of anything in the shape of high-flown or flowery language."
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- 6 Critical and accurate; incisive.
"Here he engaged in a controversy with Voltaire, in which he was lashed by the incessive wit and satire of his own countrymen, and obliged to retire to France, where he died at Basel in 1759."
- 7 Intruding inward.
"On the right cheek, just below the incessive tearing, and only a mild redness."
- 8 Included.
"The opening sentence is very risky. " I found myself standing on my feet " is apt to destroy all proper solemnity of feeling by suggesting that it would, on the whole, have been more remarkable if the gentleman had found himself standing on his head. To " stand upon one's feet " is indeed excellent English; but in excellent English it always has (so far as we remember) an incessive sense — " to rise upon the feet and stand " — which is wanting here."
- 9 Synonym of inessive.
"The Hungarian 'incessive' -ban/-ben (e.g., ha'z-ban “in the house”, ke'z-ben “in the hand”) arose from the postposition benn; today it appears in a non-case form only in adverbial usage with possessive suffixes (e.g., bennem “in me”, benned “in you”)."
- 10 Durative.
"The presence of the feature progression means that the activity denoted by the primary verb is understood as a succession of events indicated by this verb either directed towards a goal (pre-terminative) or directed from a point with its goal unspecified (post" inceptive). In this sense the pre-terminative succession can be confused with the incessive process (the explicator ) of a state of an event denoted by a verb."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"In both species it is impossible for the eye to follow the incessive movements of the feet, and to compare them with those of other quadrupeds, but from their chrono-photographic images it is easy to see that, taking the order of the movements of the limbs as a standard, the lizards are trotting animals."
Etymology
From Latin incessus + -ive, from Latin incesso + -ive.
More for "incessive"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.