expectative

[ik-spek-tuh-tiv]

adjective

1. of or relating to expectation.

2. characterized by expectation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of expectative¹

From the Medieval Latin word expectātīvus, dating back to 1480–90. See expectation, -ive

Example Sentences

These acts constituted clear assumptions by the popes of power which under the law of the Church was not theirs, and, though the framers of the Pragmatic Sanction had motives which were more or less selfish for combatting the r�serve and the gr�ce expectative, there can be no question that the abuses aimed at were as real as they were represented to be.

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All grants of benefices made by the pope in virtue of the droit d'expectative are hereby declared null.

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They went to Stuttgart, where the W�rtemberg Government kept up a sort of expectative neutrality.

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Further: feeble, expectative and vacillating minds, deprived of the faculty to embrace in all its depth and extension the task before them,—such minds cannot have a clear purpose, nor the firm perception of ways and means leading to the aim, and still less have they the sternness of conviction so necessary for men dealing with such mighty events, on which depend the life and death of a society.

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"We are preserving," they say, "a dignified expectative attitude."

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