a. [f. ARREST v. + -IVE; cf. OF. arrestif, -ive.]
1. Having as its attribute or tendency to arrest.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt. (1862), 407. Partaking of the nature of the arrestive and instigative [are] … emotions of astonishment, surprise and wonder.
1865. C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, iii. 66. A bush burning to ashes in common fire would have been a startling and arrestive sight.
2. Gram. Applied to conjunctions such as but.
1863. Bain, Eng. Gram., 65–6. The second class of Co-ordinating Conjunctions are the Adversative.… This class is subdivided into three species…. The Arrestive, represented by ‘but:’ ‘but then,’ ‘still,’ ‘yet,’ ‘only,’ ‘nevertheless,’ ‘however.’ Phrases: ‘for all that,’ ‘at the same time.’
