Costive

/ˈkɒstɪv/ · adjective

Meaning

Constipated..

Definitions by Sense

1. Constipated.
2. (informal) Miserly, parsimonious.

Example Sentences

When I was mortall, this my costiue corps / Did lap vp Figs and Raisons in the Strand, / Where sitting I espi'd a louely Dame, / Whose maister wrought with Lingell and with All, / And vnder ground he vampied many a boote.

Melanie, who was used to Wani's costive memos, and even to dressing up the gist of a letter in her own words, stuck out her tongue in concentration as she took down Nick's old-fashioned periods and perplexing semicolons.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:costive.

Well, the shoemaker and his wife, Louise, may have been poor, needy, indigent, destitute, impecunious and impoverished — at least before the elves came along — but they had never been parsimonious, costive, miserly, penny-pinching or stinting. They were far from being avaricious, rapacious, mean or greedy. The shoemaker was uxorious about his wife, Louise, but he had never been usurious, even when he had money to lend […]

Synonyms for costive

Antonyms for costive

Related Words

Word Forms

• more costive
• most costive

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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