Dictionary

defunctive en · ADJ

Etymology

From Latin defunctivus, from dēfūnctiō (“execution, performance, death”), from dēfungor (“to finish, perform, die”).

Meanings

1. (archaic) funereal or deathly
   • Let the priest in surplice white/That defunctive music can/ Be the death-divining swan/ Lest the requiem lack his right. 1601, William Shakespeare, The Phoenix and the Turtle:
   • The road was now a black tunnel floored with the impalpable defunctive glare of the sand. 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, published 1985, page 13:

Forms

Relateds

defunction