Missive

/ˈmɪsɪv/ · noun

Meaning

(formal) A written message; a letter, note or memo..

Definitions by Sense

1. (formal) A written message; a letter, note or memo.
2. (in the plural, Scots law) Letters sent between two parties in which one makes an offer and the other accepts it.
3. (obsolete) One who is sent; a messenger.
4. Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.
5. (obsolete) Serving as a missile; intended to be thrown.

Example Sentences

[Y]ou / Did pocket vp my Letters: and with taunts / Did gibe my Miſive out of audience.

The juvenile missives from his unmistakably phallic Twitter avatar came days after one of his rockets launched NASA’s first antiasteroid planetary-defense test[…]

The Madonna letters, which are interspersed with more personal missives in this curious epistolary memoir, accumulate into a rap about the downsides of celebrity - the problems of ageing, of invaded privacy, of becoming vain and impetuously adopting children from other continents.

"Curses throttle thee!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, stand by now to receive it"; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck's hands, he caught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the boat.

Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor,’ by which title these Weird Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail king that shalt be.’

a letter missive

Delivery of the Letters Missive

In vain with Darts a diſtant War they try, / Short, and more ſhort the miſſive weapons fly.

Synonyms for missive

Antonyms for missive

Related Words

Word Forms

• missives

Usage Notes

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

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