[f. prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being absorptive.
1877. J. T. Beck, Outlines of Biblical Psychology, ii. § 15. 55. In the states and arrangements of soul and body, whenever there is, or is going to be, any display of the dynamic relation (relation of force), or of the impressibility (absorptiveness), or of the energy (active influence) of the vital force that moves soul and body, the ‘firm of spirit’ comes always to the front.
1880. Nature, XXI. 26 Feb., 403/2. The temperature is such as to place the unfortunate milk upon the very tenter-hooks of absorptiveness.
1916. W. R. Shepherd, New Light on the Monroe Doctrine, in Pol Sci. Q., XXXI. 582. Recent presidential asseverations, moreover, about the policy of the United States never to take another inch of Latin-American soil, really amount to very little, so long as masked protectorates and economic absorptiveness seem to be quite as conducive, in our judgment, as actual annexation to the welfare of the politically troubled.
