a. and sb. Also 7 attrective. [a. F. attractif, -ive (14th c.), cogn. with Pr. atractiu, It. attrattivo, f. as if repr. L. *attractīvus, f. attract-: see ATTRACT v. and -IVE.]
A. adj. Having the attribute of attracting; apt or tending to attract.
† 1. Having the attribute of drawing or sucking in; absorptive. Obs.
1540. [see ATTRACT v. 1].
1620. Venner, Via Recta, viii. 192. By debilitie of the digestiue facultie, or of the Attractiue.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. v. This attractive power is very necessary in plants, which suck up moisture by the root.
1713. C’tess. Winchelsea, Misc. Poems, 91. Vapours Which … rise In Clouds to the attractive Brain.
† 2. Med. Having the property of ‘drawing’ matter or humours. Obs.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, xlvii. 22 b. For aches and peyne in the armes use seare clothes that be attractyve.
1597. J. T., Serm. Paules Crosse, 46. A sore bitten with a venemous beast, can not be healed, except by an attractiue medicine.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 630. Drawing or attractive plaisters.
1786. Chambers, Cycl. (Rees), Attractives, or attractive remedies … which are to be externally applied.
† 3. Having the property of drawing to itself by contact. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 81. The tongue of a Cat is very attractive and forcible like a file, attenuating by licking the flesh of a man.
4. Having the property of drawing to itself by some physical force bodies not materially attached to it; of the nature of attraction.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1337. There is not in that voidnesse any puissance attractive of bodies.
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 527. The attractive power of the loadstone.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., II. 466. It feels th’ attractive Earth’s Magnetick Force.
1794. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., LXXXV. 46. Sir Isaac Newton has shewn that the sun, by its attractive power, retains the planets of our system in their orbits.
1879. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 67. The intensity of the attractive impulses.
b. fig. Drawing as by magnetic influence.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 117. Here’s Mettle more attractiue.
1642. Bp. Andrewes, Pattern Cath. Doctr., 109. Love is the lode-stone attractive of love.
5. Having the quality of drawing (living beings) by influencing their will and action.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. ii. 91. She hath blessed and attractiue eyes.
1601. Holland, Pliny, Ep. Vespas. Although your gentlenesse and humanitie be one way attrective, and induceth me to draw neare unto your presence.
1730. Southall, Buggs, 32. My Liquor has an attractive as well as the destructive Quality, and thereby does bring out and destroy every live Bugg.
1862. Mill, Utilit., 60. The repelling influence of pain as well as the attractive one of pleasure.
6. Having the quality of attracting attention, interest, affection, or other pleasurable emotion; interesting, engaging, pleasing, winning, alluring. (Now the most frequent use.)
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., Epit. (1612), 389. By his attractiue vertues … confirmed to him the hearts of all his Subiects.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentl. (1641), 410/2. Decency, the attractivest motive of affection.
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, i. Interesting and attractive for those who love to hear an old man’s stories of a past age.
1859. Sat. Rev., 23 July, 103. It tells it in a style almost as attractive as a novel.
1878. ‘Ouida,’ Friendship, I. 85. ‘Do you think her attractive?’ ‘No, not at all.’
B. sb.
† 1. Med. A ‘drawing’ medicament. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 619. The safest way … to cure the poyson, is by attractives.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physic, 288. Set Cupping glasses to it; also other Attractives.
1786. [see A. 2].
† 2. That which draws like a magnet. Also fig.
1581. R. Norman (title), The new Attractive, containing a short Discourse of the Magnet or Loadstone, now first found out.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. (1736), 267. The impiety of men is the forcible attractive of God’s vengeance.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., vii. 359. That powerful attractive which by a strong and divine sympathy draws down the virtue of heaven into the souls of men.
† 3. A thing or circumstance that attracts attention, or interest, or draws people to see it; an ‘attraction.’ Obs.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., III. iii. 34. And, then, the dressing Is a most maine attractive!
1765. Doddridge, in Mem., viii. § 4 (1823), 221. God has removed so powerful an attractive from earth.
† 4. A quality that attracts morally or through pleasurable emotions; esp. an attractive personal quality. Obs. (A very favorite word in the 17th and 18th centuries; now replaced by ATTRACTION.)
1635. Naunton, Fragm. Reg., in Harl. Misc. (1793), 187. He had very fine attractives, as being a good piece of a scholar.
1706. Collier, Refl. Ridic., 194. The Women that are caught by these Attractives, must be very silly.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 302, ¶ 4. The attractives of her Beauty.
a. 1805. Beddome, Disc., in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. lxiii. 8. The powerful attractives of divine grace.
