Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“The regulative ideal of being correct and truthful, those ideals don't hold with him. The thing that holds is power.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 7, 2018

Even as he signed six measures, Mr. Brown, a moderate Democrat with a history of resistance to some efforts to regulate guns, vetoed five others that he described as overly regulative.

From New York Times • Jul. 1, 2016

Others say the FDA’s latest ban exceeds its regulative authority and that food producers had better beware of other unhealthy ingredients.

From Washington Times • Jun. 16, 2015

At the Big Ten school I attend in the Midwest, regulative policies are in full effect, and it is notoriously hard to obtain an attention-deficit diagnosis, regardless of diagnostic history. 

From Scientific American • Feb. 4, 2013

They drew from it their titles and ranks and many of their regulative ideas, though these were formed into more definite and regular systems than ever existed in feudalism proper.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere" by Various