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reductive love

reductive

Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to reduction.
  • adjective Relating to or exhibiting reductionism.
  • adjective Relating to or exhibiting reductivism.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the property, power, or effect of reducing; tending to reduce.
  • noun That which has the power of reducing.

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

  • adjective Tending to reduce; having the power or effect of reducing.

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

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or causing physical reduction.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to reductionism or reductivism.
  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or causing figurative reduction; belittling, disparaging, ridiculing.

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

  • adjective characterized by or causing diminution or curtailment

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I explained how I had arrived at the assertion that he had described as reductive: Either everything written is literature, or only some of it is.

    Archive 2009-04-01 2009

  • This is certainly true in the case of Abelard and Ockham, whom we earlier identified as reductive realists.

    Medieval Theories of Relations Brower, Jeffrey 2009

  • I explained how I had arrived at the assertion that he had described as reductive: Either everything written is literature, or only some of it is.

    Argument and monologue 2009

  • Madonna's savoir faire as a marketer is unfailing: Her comment - she called Gaga's song "reductive"- has everyone talking about her again.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed LYNN CROSBIE 2012

  • This kind of reductive description has especially been used for quite some time now by academics eager to rid the study of literature of all vestiges of formalism in favor of "cultural critique."

    Saying Something 2010

  • His "(though Hillary's tough Iran talk certainly does make it easier to simplify matters in this fashion)" places his "reductive" in context here, IMO.

    Obama: Hillary's Tough Talk Towards Iran Is "Reflective Of George Bush" 2009

  • The mosaic artists in Tunisia created these faces according to the same kind of reductive thinking.

    Ancient Pixel Knowledge James Gurney 2009

  • Bastet's Tail, Ape, I'd expect that kind of reductive, simplistic smear from a Blogging Tory, but not from YOU.

    Is It Wednesday Yet? Lindsay Stewart 2008

  • Most of your posts reveal you to be open-minded and respectful, but this kind of reductive assertion is exactly what polarizes this issue.

    jesus h. 2005

  • I think that has an inevitable kind of reductive effect on the amount of substance that gets conveyed, both by the candidates and by the news; you know, the news, too.

    The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the 1948 Election 2000

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