curvativeadj.

1832 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. iv. i. 410 Curvative (curvativa); when the margins are slightly curved, either backwards or forwards, without any sensible twisting.

1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. I. 364 Curvative, when the margins are slightly turned up or down, without any sensible bending inwards.

1846 in Ann. Rep. Commissioner Patents (1847) 250 The curvative force, acting and reacting as aforesaid, is applied substantially to cure the disease as aforesaid.

1921 Jrnl. Dental Res. 3 254 The inferior incisors showed an extrusive growth of 3 mm. and a curvative growth of 2 mm. per week.

1962 J. A. Baird Jr. Churches of Mexico 1530–1810 64 (Gloss.) Gothic, a style..usually characterized by pointed arches of varied shapes..but occasionally by arches of double curvative, or ogival shape.

1997 Progr. in Bot. 58 90 Spatz et al...described a device to measure the relationship between curvative and bending movements for hollow cylinders, such as stems, of different sizes up to the point of collapse.

2002 D. Tonneau et al. in Y. Pauleau Chem. Physics Thin Film Deposition Processes Micro- & Nano-Technol. 257 To deposit..a multi-tunnel junction consisting in a series of 3 nm wide metallic dots separated 1 nm apart, the probe curvative radius must not exceed 5 nm.