Dictionary

attritive en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /əˈtɹaɪtɪv/

Etymology

From attrit + -ive. From attrition.

Meanings

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,
   • 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? 1936, William Faulkner, chapter 5, in Absalom, Absalom!, New York: Random House:
   • 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. 1999, Christopher New, chapter 9, in Philosophy of Literature, London: Routledge, page 135:
   • From a nearby town came “crews of eager young men” who “pitched in” through the “attritive, swirling, arctic-like night.” 2009 September 6, Tom Vanderbilt, “Up From Calamity”, in New York Times:

Forms

Relateds

attritional