Relative
['relətɪv] or ['rɛlətɪv]
Definition
(noun.) an animal or plant that bears a relationship to another (as related by common descent or by membership in the same genus).
(noun.) a person related by blood or marriage; 'police are searching for relatives of the deceased'; 'he has distant relations back in New Jersey'.
(adj.) estimated by comparison; not absolute or complete; 'a relative stranger' .
Edited by Davy--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Having relation or reference; referring; respecting; standing in connection; pertaining; as, arguments not relative to the subject.
(a.) Arising from relation; resulting from connection with, or reference to, something else; not absolute.
(a.) Indicating or expressing relation; refering to an antecedent; as, a relative pronoun.
(a.) Characterizing or pertaining to chords and keys, which, by reason of the identify of some of their tones, admit of a natural transition from one to the other.
(n.) One who, or that which, relates to, or is considered in its relation to, something else; a relative object or term; one of two object or term; one of two objects directly connected by any relation.
(n.) A person connected by blood or affinity; strictly, one allied by blood; a relation; a kinsman or kinswoman.
(n.) A relative pronoun; a word which relates to, or represents, another word or phrase, called its antecedent; as, the relatives "who", "which", "that".
Editor: Rudolf
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Referring (to something else), not absolute.
n. [1]. Relation, kinsman, connection.[2]. (Gram.) Relative pronoun.
Checked by Ives
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Referring_to, not_absolute
ANT:Absolute
Typist: Louis
Definition
adj. having relation: respecting: not absolute or existing by itself: considered as belonging to something else: (gram.) expressing relation.—n. that which has relation to something else: a relation: (gram.) a pronoun which relates to something before called its antecedent.—adj. Relatī′val (or Rel′atival).—adv. Rel′atively.—ns. Rel′ativeness Relativ′ity.—Relativity of human knowledge the doctrine that the nature and extent of our knowledge is determined not merely by the qualities of the objects known but necessarily by the conditions of our cognitive powers.
Typist: Nola
Examples
- In childhood and youth, with their relative freedom from economic stress, this fact is naked and unconcealed. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- She knows nothing about any relative whatever. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- This gives a much increased field, and also an increased stereoscopic effect, or conception of relative distance, by having the object glasses wider apart than the eyes of the observer. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- Indeed, the advantages other than those of relative losses, were on the Confederate side. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Do you mean my single relative--eh? Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- We are not even positive about their relative relationship. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- This allusion to the fate of William Rufus, his Relative, at once incensed and alarmed Prince John. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Your uncle is your nearest male relative, and the head of the family. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- But the relative values of those two different species of food, bread and butcher's meat, are very different in the different periods of agriculture. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Such relative absence of mind means to make our feelings the measure of what is to happen. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- What if her interest in him were not so entirely that of a relative as it had formerly been? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- She might, perhaps, have gained an absolute, but she would certainly have lost a relative advantage. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Your Grace still believes me desirous of the honour I might obtain by forcing myself on you as your despised relative? Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- She lives with a relative; Christian name, unknown; surname, Peggotty; occupation, seafaring; also of this town. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- It should be sooner, but that I have many things to arrange relative to my coming of age. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- They belong to men who are blood-relatives. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- I address these lines--written in India--to my relatives in England. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- He is not, he is living with his relatives in Germany. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- By a strange fatality Juliet alone escaped, and she to the last waited on her relatives, and smoothed the pillow of death. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Young couples, who had loved long and hopelessly, suddenly found every impediment removed, and wealth pour in from the death of relatives. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- How did she like her relatives? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- When his own relatives came she was treated better. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- A heavenly composure filled my mind, on that Saturday afternoon, as I sat at the window waiting the arrival of my relatives. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The lawyers told me that there were no relatives alive, and that I was justly entitled to spend the money, so that is how I became rich. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Whether Shirley had become wearied of her honoured relatives is not known. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It is just as well that we should do business with the male relatives. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- But are your relatives so very poor? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Well, when a man asks another to his house to stay—to be introduced to his relatives—it is uncommonly like friendship. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- They were merely indulging in the ordinary vivacious chat of relatives who have long been parted in person though not in soul. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- In the large wainscoted parlor too there were constantly pairs of eyes on the watch, and own relatives eager to be sitters-up. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Typed by Jed