a. Also (incorrectly) elenchtic. [ad. Gr. ἐλεγκτικ-ός, f. ἐλέγχ-ειν to refute; cf. prec.] Of or pertaining to refutation; concerned with refutation; that occupies himself with cross-examination.
1833. Blackw. Mag., XXXIII. 627. His duty is elenchtic.
1850. Grote, Greece, II. lxviii. VIII. 566. An elenchtic or cross-examining god.
1866. Mill, in Edin. Rev., CXXIII. 335. The dogmatic Plato seems a different person from the elenctic Plato.