discriminatoryadj.

1745 Refl. upon Church-govt. 117 The Terms of Communion, and the discriminatory Condition of Men's being received into it.

1828 W. Field Mem. Dr. Parr II. xxiii. 414 Proofs of a pure taste and a discriminatory judgment.

1891 Brit. Printer Sept. 10/2 Such a process of selection must be advantageous to the trade the lad joins, and it would be well if such a discriminatory process could have begun earlier.

1935 Philos. Sci. 2 245 Discrimination is to be regarded neurally as having occurred when the final paths that lead to the specific discriminatory reaction have been selectively activated.

1958 J. E. Morton Molluscs iii. 62 Octopus has fine discriminatory powers in the sense organs of the tentacles: Wells and Wells..have demonstrated a well-developed ‘chemo-tactile’ sense.

2011 C. Alasalvar et al. Handbk. Seafood Quality, Safety & Health Applic. ii. 16 Panel training..improves their discriminatory ability and quality of vocabulary used.

1820 Morning Post 13 Jan. In the Circular from this Department, of the 14th April, 1819, it is observed..that the Prussian Government has repealed its discriminatory duties, so far as they operated against the United States.

1892 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch 1 Mar. The Government still hoped for discriminatory rights with Great Britain.

1922 Amer. Food Jrnl. June 29/2 One of the chief obstacles to foreign trade to-day in canned foods is the very exorbitant and discriminatory tariffs in different countries against the American product.

1965 Times 7 Apr. 12/3 The fact that companies will have to pay on their gains at the higher corporation tax level..was thought to be discriminatory.

2009 Wall St. Jrnl. 20 Nov. a16/4 The draft agreement allows Korean discriminatory treatment of imported U.S. automobiles to perpetuate.

1896 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 26 Aug. 3/2 Discriminatory and repressionary restrictions.

1899 Chicago Tribune 19 Aug. 6/2 To the authorities of the South we especially appeal to repeal all discriminatory laws enacted to humiliate us, to give the negro a fair chance at the ballot box and a fair trial by jury.

1920 Woman Citizen 29 May 1332/2 Practically all these states have statutes, rules or regulations which discriminate against women. Illinois forms a striking exception to such discriminatory rules and practice.

1971 Guardian 8 Mar. 6/4 Asians..have not forgotten the similar ‘discriminatory’ Immigrants Act of 1968.

1991 P. M. Nardi & R. Bolton in R. Baenninger Targets of Violence & Aggression ix. 350 Millions of others [sc. gay men and lesbians] live with the fear and knowledge that they..are at risk of being the targets of hate crimes and of discriminatory actions.

2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Sept. 9/1 The paradigm case of racism for most people now is discriminatory behaviour by a person with a more or less pale skin towards a person of darker colour or different physiognomy.

1920 Reno (Nevada) Evening Gaz. 18 Sept. 7/5 The territorial horizontal increases in rates prescribed by the commission for interstate traffic..would operate excessively and discriminatorily on many lines of traffic.

1974 Crisis Oct. 275/1 The system of military justice works discriminatorily against minority veterans on all fronts.

2011 D. S. Hamermesh Beauty Pays vi. 121 Consumers' preferences for beauty discriminatorily appear to make bad-looking people less productive in the eyes of employers.