hypersensitiveadj.

1871 M. E. Braddon Lovels ix. 170 Apt to be hypersensitive, and easily disturbed about trifles.

1892 Jrnl. Mental Sci. 38 525 Charcot and his pupils..believe in the influence of the magnet in hysteria, where the nervous system is hyper-sensitive.

1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. III. 111 In this condition the reflex apparatus of the glottis is so hypersensitive.

a1930 D. H. Lawrence Phoenix II (1968) 269 This soldier poet is so straight, so free from the modern artist's hyper-sensitive self-consciousness, that we would have more of him.

1939 E. Paul & C. Paul tr. W. Stekel Technique Analyt. Psychotherapy xx. 283 A woman brought up on religious lines, morally hypersensitive, who pursues ideal aims.

1972 Oxf. Times 19 May 7/1 Mr Francis Barnes, defending, described Jeffries as a ‘retiring and hypersensitive’ man who had lived as a semi-recluse for 17 years.

1899 E. O. Jordan tr. F. Hueppe Princ. Bacteriol. vi. 337 Behring has found that it is possible..to immunize animals so highly..that they..become hyper-sensitive to the toxin.

1906 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 29 Sept. 1007/2 At first glance it would appear much more important for an organism to be hyposensitive than hypersensitive to infectious processes, but a closer study of the complex problems of immunity develops the curious fact that resistance to disease may be largely gained through a process of hypersusceptibility.

1922 Jrnl. Immunol. 7 128 The similarity of symptoms of drug reactions with those of foreign proteins in specifically hypersensitive persons.

1935 N. P. Sherwood Immunol. xxiii. 465 One injection of a nontoxic dose of horse serum will render guinea pigs hypersensitive to a second injection of the antigen provided an interval of almost ten days is allowed to intervene.

1951 L. E. H. Whitby & M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) vii. 95 Human idiosyncrasy..differs in some important respects from anaphylaxis. The exciting agent is not necessarily an antigen; patients may become hypersensitive, for example, to drugs with a very simple chemical structure.

1964 W. G. Smith Allergy & Tissue Metabolism i. 7 In patients who are specifically hypersensitive to a single allergen, it is very likely that sensitisation has been brought about by a previous contact with the allergen.

1964 W. G. Smith Allergy & Tissue Metabolism i. 13 A vast literature exists on histamine..and leaves no doubt about its involvement in the hypersensitive state.

1937 Discovery May p. xliv (advt.) Hypersensitive panchromatic roll film.

1965 M. J. Langford Basic Photogr. x. 179 Red-pan or hypersensitive pan materials are..sensitive to red and respond up to 6,800 Å.