reactiveadj.n.

1649 W. Charleton tr. J. B. van Helmont Ternary of Paradoxes 52 What is the action, passion, and velitation or reactive encounter [L. velitatio] betwixt Naturall Spirits.

1758 tr. Voltaire Maid of Orleans I. 183 All men of true gallantry..desire a reactive kiss to every one of theirs.

1851 H. Spencer Social Statics 318 We have to consider, not only what is done for the afflicted, but what is the reactive effect upon those who do it.

1972 J. Viertel tr. M. Horkheimer & T. Adorno Aspects of Sociol. 158 The town..is exercising an increasingly great influence..on the surrounding hinterland, an influence to which the reactive influence of the countryside on the town by no means corresponds.

1717 R. Blackmore Ess. Several Subj. II. 308 Their Bodies..stop them in their Flight when they are rising to the Seats above, and bring them down again to the Earth with a reactive Force, that controuls their Inclinations.

1742 G. Cheyne Nat. Method cureing Dis. Body (ed. 3) 33 For that all Bodies whose Particles are continuous, must be repellent and reactive, is necessary from the Nature of Matter.

1794 G. Adams Lect. Nat. & Exper. Philos. III. xxvi. 113 Every body that acts, is at the same instant active and re-active.

1863 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics §380 In reaction machines steam acts by a reactive force like water in the hydraulic tourniquet.

1983 J. S. Foster Struct. & Fabric (rev. ed.) I. iii. 57/1 In addition to the horizontal reactive forces in the bearing there is also a vertical reaction.

1998 Automotive Engineer June 79/2 Following an impact, rebound is said to be reduced by a mass damper, countering the reactive force implied on impact.

1803 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 93 196 It [sc. aqueous humour] causes very little change in the vegetable reactive colours.

1888 Nature 22 Mar. 503/1 The unsaturated hydrocarbons..are..more reactive than the paraffins.

1910 Lancet 19 Nov. 1492/1 The oil contained a very highly reactive unsaturated acid, having 18 carbon atoms and four double bonds.

1942 G. Wendt Chem. vii. 179 As in the other families of elements we shall meet, the lightest of the group—in this case fluorine—is the most reactive.

1981 P. Sykes Guidebk. to Mechanism in Org. Chem. (ed. 5) i. 20 Each atom separates with one electron, leading to the formation of highly reactive entities called radicals, owing their reactivity to the unpaired electron.

1992 Cambr. Encycl. Human Evol. (1994) viii. iii. 303/1 Each antibody molecule has two identical reactive ends, which will recognise only one antigenic site.

1863 J. Timbs Year-bk. of Facts 205 Experiments have been made at the Ministry of War, and the composition was found to resist all the reactive tests applied to it.

1868 Proc. Royal Soc. 17 72 All the mustard-oils here mentioned exhibit, more especially with reference to ammonia and its derivatives, the same reactive power which belongs to ethylic mustard-oil.

1978 R. M. Felder & R. W. Rousseau Elem. Princ. Chem. Processes x. 384 In this chapter we show..how calculated enthalpies of reaction are incorporated in energy balances on reactive processes.

1995 Inorg. Chem. 34 6381/1 Benzoquinones were found to be the main product, and a phenoxy radical was suggested as a reactive intermediate.

1928 Industr. & Engin. Chem. 20 619/2 The more reactive cokes are those with a large number of minute cells per unit mass.

1963 Economist 21 Dec. 1284/1 The Minister of Power now estimates that there will be a gap..between the demand for such ‘reactive’ smokeless fuels and the supply.

1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia IV. 783/2 Coals of medium rank are used for low-temperature carbonization because they yield reactive cokes.

2005 Appl. Catalysis B. 61 257/2 This behaviour..was explained by the faster formation than oxidation of reactive coke.

1941 J. De Ment & H. C. Dake Uranium & Atomic Power vi. 269 A chromatographic test is in [sic] the application of a dye-system to uranium minerals, i.e., a mixture of reactive dyes[;] selective adsorption and diffusion processes occur, as well as chemical reaction, with subsequent examination under ultra-violet radiation.

1973 Materials & Technol. VI. iv. 310 The direct, basic, sulphur, vat, azoic and reactive dyes are all suitable for colouring the fibre [sc. rayon].

1977 Harrison Mayer Ltd. Catal. 39/1 Reactive colours, a new range of leadless colours for underglaze, on-glaze or in-glaze decoration... On firing, these colours react with the glaze to give interesting and variegated effects.

1990 A. Sebba Laura Ashley: Life by Design (BNC) 79 Reactive dyestuffs..chemically react with the cotton fibre, under the influence of alkali and heat.

1950 Chem. Abstr. 44 8190 (heading) Reactive diffusion in metals.

1971 New Scientist 8 Apr. 96/1 Reactive evaporation..is often used for depositing metal oxides.

1993 Appl. Superconductivity 1 88 The ceramic core of tube C, fabricated with completely reacted powders that underwent almost no reactive sintering.

2006 Internat. Jrnl. Refractory Metals & Hard Materials 24 263 Reactive carburizing sintering is a novel process where synthesis reaction of the carbide phase is combined with liquid phase sintering of the Cr₃C₂–Ni cermet.

1809 W. Nicholson Brit. Encycl. VI. at Surgery It [sc. sympathetic fever] is the reactive effort of an irritated and weakened constitution.

1831 Lancet 3 Dec. 341/2 The traces of inflammation in various organs after death, indicate the causes or effects of the reactive fever, rather than of the cholera which precedes that fever.

1896 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. I. 293 Delicate children, with little reactive power.

1909 Lancet 2 Oct. 998/2 The first treats of the morbid and reactive processes proper—i.e., inflammation or the local reaction to injury.

1940 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 49 113/1 The bones showed reactive productive bony changes.

1990 Physiotherapy 76 806/1 Cold hands have a much slower recovery in response to cold stress, often followed by a more marked reactive hyperaemia.

2006 Trends Neurosci. 29 518/2 Associated inflammatory glial responses in these diseases have often been classified as unspecific ‘reactive gliosis’ that deserves no further serious consideration.

1894 H. R. Marshall Pain, Pleasure, & Aesthetics 198 The systems reactive to stimuli connected with the emergencies of life.

1923 Lancet 29 Dec. 1387/1 The pupils were unequal, the right being smaller and less reactive to light than the left.

1972 Y. Manaka & I. A. Urquhart Layman's Guide Acupuncture vii. 113 As its name suggests, the reactive point is the most sensitive point in a painful area.

1994 Film Focus Dec. 33/1 An allergist finds he's reactive to 32 different foods, but someone else tells him he's allergic to the suggested cure.

2005 Forensic Sci. Internat. 153 99 Clinical examination revealed a Glasgow coma score of 9, symmetrical reactive pupils with mydriasis and no convulsions.

1900 A. Church Nerv. & Mental Dis. (ed. 2) viii. 712 The convalescence from that psychosis [sc. Mania] is not infrequently characterized by a reactive depression, a lacrymose irritability.

1918 Lancet 9 Nov. 615/1 Contemporary psycho-pathologists maintain that all neuroses are ‘reactive’ disorders—that is to say, they are the consequences of a failure of psychological adaptation or readjustment to environment.

1955 D. J. McCarthy & K. M. Corrin Med. Treatm. Mental Dis. xix. 326 Reactive depressions are the mild, brief depressions, the result of situations depressing in themselves, and not out of proportion to circumstances.

1971 Brit. Med. Bull. 27 77/2 One school of thought..allocates such cases to a special category of ‘reactive psychoses’.

2001 A. Solomon Noonday Demon (2002) ii. 62 Traditionally, a line has been drawn between the endogenous and reactive models of depression, the endogenous starting at random from within, while the reactive is an extreme response to a sad situation.

1914 G. M. Whipple tr. W. Stern Psychol. Methods Intelligence Testing iii. i. 114 All test investigations..put the examinee into the same mental condition—that of being a subject. And this involves..in particular the habit of mere reacting, taking at a given moment a receptive attitude toward a problem set from without.]

1927 C. E. Spearman Abilities of Man iv. 47 Stern's division of persons into the ‘spontaneous’ and the ‘merely reactive’.

1952 M. K. Wilson tr. K. Z. Lorenz King Solomon's Ring xi. 171 A few birds—usually old, strongly reactive ones—take off, emitting ‘Kiaw’ cries and thereby provoking the whole flock to leave the ground with them.

1971 A. J. R. Reiss Police & Public ii. 64 Citizens usually bring matters to police attention... The police department deals with such requests as a reactive organization.

1998 Educ. Rev. 12 ii. 27/2 The focus is on encouraging individuals to take charge of their health,..to think long-term, be proactive rather than reactive.

2002 Econ. Times (Nexis) 19 Oct. c2 He found older experts were likely to be far more conservative about ECT, unlike younger doctors who tended to be more reactive and receptive.

1892 J. A. Fleming Alternate Current Transformer II. ii. 269 Reactive Coil or Dimmer.—This is a device used in alternating current work to serve the same ends as rheostats in direct current plants.

1914 J. H. Morecroft Continuous & Alternating Current Machinery vi. 205 The component of voltage 90° out of phase with the current we shall call the reactive component of the voltage or reactive voltage.

1920 Whittaker's Electr. Engineers's Pocket-bk. (ed. 4) 222 The reactive current changes from leading to lagging as the field excitation is reduced.

1987 E. H. J. Pallett Aircraft Electr. Syst. (ed. 3) ii. 36/1 Most a.c. generators are designed to take a proportion of the reactive component of current through their windings.

2006 Computational Materials Sci. 37 136/1 The active component (ohmic) of the current increases more rapidly than its reactive component (capacitive).

1928 Jrnl. Sci. Instruments 5 40 A well designed gramophone system puts a heavy load on the record and gets a high acoustic output, but the reactive component is small.

1963 C. T. Morrow Shock & Vibration Engin. I. vi. 127 A reactive impedance indicates that energy supplied is stored, as in..a compressed spring.

1976 A. H. Benade Fund. of Musical Acoustics xxi. 457/2 The other register hole on my special clarinet can be called a reactive register hole, i.e., an aperture in which the flow depends mainly on the inertia of the air moving through it.

2006 Physics of Plasmas 13 032108-2/2 For the collisionless plasma without a density gradient the impedance is purely reactive and there is no energy absorption.