Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Prohibiting; forbidding.
  • adjective So high or burdensome as to discourage purchase or use.
  • adjective So likely to win as to discourage competition.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as prohibitory.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective That prohibits; prohibitory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Tending to prohibit, preclude, or disallow.
  • adjective Costly to the extreme; beyond budget.
  • noun linguistics negative imperative

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective tending to discourage (especially of prices)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

prohibit +‎ -ive

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Examples

  • I think that you'll find the word 'prohibitive' is an understatement.

    NASA Finds The Metric System Too Hard To Implement for Constellation - NASA Watch 2009

  • Your comment about anise being cost prohibitive is true, but what I started doing last year is to go to the pharmacy and buy a syringe (like diabetics use) and squirt proper amount on my bait.

    Tip of the Day: Add Scent Cheap with Cod Liver Oil 2009

  • Your comment about anise being cost prohibitive is true, but what I started doing last year is to go to the pharmacy and buy a syringe (like diabetics use) and squirt proper amount on my bait.

    Tip of the Day: Add Scent Cheap with Cod Liver Oil 2009

  • I submit that a more complete solution to the crisis of access to legal services should fulfil the following conditions: it should increase the pool of legal service providers in order to address the overall shortage of lawyers; is should increase the capacity of legal aid and other entities to provide legal services free of charge; it should ensure access to legal services for people of all income levels, including low and middle income people; it should not be cost-prohibitive from a government viewpoint; and, it should ensure a high quality of legal service as well as competence and integrity among all legal professionals.

    Access to Legal Services: Lessons from the Medical Profession (Part 1 of 3) : Law is Cool 2009

  • The article goes on to say one option is to boost the force level by up to 50,000 even though any increase greater than 20 - 30,000 would be "prohibitive" - but it won't deter the Pentagon, on administration orders, from extending tours of duty even longer for forces now there and calling up thousands of reservists and greatly extended National Guard units to get into this quagmire even though it's recognized their presence will only make things worse as well as place an unfair burden on those called up, who've served before, and their families.

    A Look Back and Ahead In An Age of Neocon Rule 2006

  • The article goes on to say one option is to boost the force level by up to 50,000 even though any increase greater than 20 - 30,000 would be "prohibitive" - but it won't deter the Pentagon, on administration orders, from extending tours of duty even longer for forces now there and calling up thousands of reservists and greatly extended National Guard units to get into this quagmire even though it's recognized their presence will only make things worse as well as place an unfair burden on those called up, who've served before, and their families.

    A Look Back and Ahead In An Age of Neocon Rule 2006

  • Who now could deny that it would be folly to oppose the resources of ordinary warfare to those of what might be called prohibitive warfare.

    The Great War Syndicate 1889

  • Who now could deny that it would be folly to oppose the resources of ordinary warfare to those of what might be called prohibitive warfare.

    The Great War Syndicate Frank Richard Stockton 1868

  • The city reserves the right to cancel the arena project, which is to be financed jointly by the city and the province, should a detailed cost study make the price tag prohibitive.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed SEAN GORDON 2011

  • The intent, however, was to make the taxes and terms prohibitive to all non-medical use.

    Adirondack Daily Enterprise 2009

Comments

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  • I could not believe that she really desired to sell it or cared for any information I might give her. What she wished was to dangle it before my eyes and put a prohibitive price on it.

    Henry James, The Aspern Papers

    November 15, 2011