preventive
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /pɹɪˈvɛntɪv/
Adjective

preventive

  1. Preventing, hindering, or acting as an obstacle to.
  2. Carried out to deter military aggression.
  3. Slowing the development of an illness; prophylactic.
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica
      Physick is either curative or preventive.
  4. (obsolete) Going before; preceding.
    • 1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe
      Any previous counsel or preventive understanding.
Translations Translations Translations Noun

preventive (plural preventives)

  1. (dated) A thing that prevents, hinders, or acts as an obstacle to.
  2. (nonstandard) A thing that slows the development of an illness.
  3. A contraceptive, especially a condom.



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