tardive
Americanadjective
Usage
What does tardive mean? Tardive describes something as tending to appear late, usually in reference to development or the progression of a disease. The symptoms or the disease itself occur late or on a delay. Tardive symptoms and diseases usually appear years after the beginning of the actual disease. Tremors and tics are common symptoms that show up later and are described as tardive, for example. The most common use of tardive is in tardive dyskinesia. This is a disease that causes the body to involuntarily jerk, such as with a twisting of the head and neck or with facial expressions. Tardive dyskinesia is developed most often by taking antipsychotic medication for long periods of time. It’s called tardive dyskinesia because symptoms don’t tend to show up until the patient has been taking the medication for many years, and they may even appear after the person has stopped taking it. Example: Martin’s doctor helped him manage the tardive tics caused by his antipsychotic medication.
Etymology
Origin of tardive
1960–65; < French tardive, feminine of tardif tardy
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.
And I have tardive dyskinesia, poking my tongue out over and over again.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2018
Louis also suffers from tardive dyskinesia — which causes involuntary body movements — and uses his condition to earn sympathy from judges and juries.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2016
The antipsychotics typically prescribed to kids like Jonah as a first-line treatment for dangerous behaviors come with truly scary and sometimes permanent side effects, including dystonia, tardive dyskinesia, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2014
Vendange Tardiveby Peter Reading A vendange tardive is a late-harvest wine, and the title poem records the gift of a bottle on the poet's 62nd birthday.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 5, 2011
The grosse mignonne peach at Montreuil produced "from a sporting branch" the grosse mignonne tardive, "a most excellent variety," which ripens its fruit a fortnight later than the parent tree, and is equally good.
From The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 1 by Charles Darwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
