promotiveadj.n.

1523 J. Skelton Goodly Garlande of Laurell sig. Aiii Whereto made ye me hym to auaunce Unto the rowme of laureat promotyue?

1645 J. Goodwin Innocency & Truth Triumphing 76 They will use [it] rather in a destructive, then promotive way thereunto.

1680 Relig. Dutch v. 46 Promotive to the advancement of Christian Religion.

1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. ii. iii. 98 Corroborative of Religion, and promotive of true Faith.

1798 C. Stearns Woman of Honor 25 We suppose..that they are replete with good sentiments, and promotive of good morals.

1824 M. R. Mitford Our Village I. 277 The air is so promotive of growth.

1882 Contemp. Rev. 42 860 Agencies powerfully promotive of human progress.

1919 Amer. Hist. Rev. 24 627 Congress..added to the list of crimes various acts promotive of rebellion and obstructive of recruiting and the draft.

1970 Nature 19 Dec. 1225/2 A plausible explanation for the decline in dormancy is that, during ripening, both seeds act as sinks for a limited supply of some promotive substance.

1991 Internat. Jrnl. Law & Family 5 252 Health is not just the absence of disease, but rather a state of general human well-being attained through a combination of preventive, curative and promotive health care.

1780 tr. C. H. von Bogatzky God’s Thoughts of Peace in War 9 Melancholy reports are also promotives of security; for men finding that so many melancholy accounts prove false, they come to believe nothing.

1842 H. C. Van Schaack Life Peter Van Schaack xxii. 461 In the ample resources of his mind, he found constant promotives of that cheerfulness, which, although he continued totally blind, rarely deserted him.

1857 Times 1 Apr. 7/6 Sudden changes of temperature, subjecting one to colds..are of themselves promotives of disorders of the digestive organs.

1902 T. E. Burton Financial Crises & Periods of Industr. & Commerc. Depression vii. 263 One of the most serious promotives of crises in the United States is the fact that so large a share of the capital required in manufacturing establishments..is furnished by discounts obtained from banks.

1998 Courier Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 28 Dec. 2 The ban on hormonal growth promotives has forced the Australian meat industry to segregate and exclude treated stock from the multimillion-dollar EC export market.

a1866 J. Grote Exam. Utilit. Philos. (1870) xvi. 251 He has defined utilitarianism as the philosophy which values one thing simply in regard of actions, viz. their promotiveness of happiness.

1914 Frederick (Maryland) Post 10 Nov. 7/1 No one who has ever attended a Maryland Week Exhibition..can entertain a doubt concerning the educational value or the inspirational promotiveness of these annually recurring shows.

1991 W. J. McGuire & C. V. McGuire Content, Structure & Operation of Thought Syst. in R. S. Wyer & T. K. Srull Cognition IV. i. 5 In the realistic domain the person can cope..by thinking about the event's..likelihood in terms of the promotiveness of its perceived antecedents.