absorptiveadj.

1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity viii. 132 There being no Ark left to take Sanctuary in, and to be safe from the working and absorptive waves.

1667 E. Waterhouse Short Narr. Fire London 32 This harrass of Fire and that so generally absorptive of the city.

1777 J. Mudge Diss. Inoculated Small-pox 105 Water, perhaps pure element, was copiously imbibed by the absorptive powers of the skin.

1831 D. Brewster Treat. Optics xvi. 137 The absorptive power of air is finely displayed in the colour of the morning and evening clouds.

1870 G. Rolleston Forms Animal Life 34 Absorptive as well as secreting glands exist in great abundance in the walls of the digestive tube.

1965 Gloss. Paint Terms (B.S.I.) 32 Hold out, the ability of a paint film to dry to its normal finish on a somewhat absorptive surface.

2003 C. Binggeli Building Syst. Interior Designers lii. 408/2 The amount of sound that is reflected off the surfaces back into the room is greatly decreased by absorptive materials.

1881 W. J. Rolfe in W. Shakespeare Coriolanus Pref. 6 His lazy, somnolent, stupidly absorptive satisfaction.

1929 J. E. Downey Creative Imagination iv. xix. 150 Drawing of a scene, in distinction from a single figure, may develop out of the continued repetition of a single figure, on account of an absorptive interest in it.

1979 E. R. Hilgard in D. Goleman & R. J. Davidson Consciousness & Alternate Realities 153/2 The capacity for dissociation of a highly susceptible subject facilitates his or her absorptive involvement in reading, drama, hypnosis, and so forth.

2003 M. Esteve Aesthetics & Politics Crowd in Amer. Lit. Introd. 18 The aesthetic, as dramatized by absorptive fascination with crowds, divides itself off from the political.