mordicative

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mordicativus.

Adjective

mordicative (comparative more mordicative, superlative most mordicative)

1. Biting; corrosive.
   • 1657, Plutarch, “A Breviary of the Comparison between Aristophanes and Menander”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophy, Commonly Called, The Morals […], revised edition, London: […] S[arah] G[riffin] for J. Kirton, […], →OCLC, page 774:

     [T]he conceits and jeſts of Ariſtophanes are bitter and ſharp withal, carrying with them a mordicative qualitie which doth bite, sting and exulcerate whereſoever they light.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “mordicative”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)