a. and sb. Also 6 vegeetyve, 7 vegitiue. [Reduced form of VEGETATIVE a., after L. veget-āre or veget-us.]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to, characteristic of, vegetables or plants; = VEGETATIVE a. 2.
1526. St. Papers Hen. VIII., VI. 534. The oolde tre for lakk of vegeetyve sprytis maye nott opteeyne perfect rote fastnesse.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 123. Not rent off, but cut off, ripe beane with a knife, for hindering stalke of hir vegetiue life.
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. Vocation, 1354. The pleasant Soyl … is all dry’d and dead; Voyd of all force, vitall, or vegetive.
1631. W. Saltonstall, Pict. Loquent., F ii. His knowledge consists in the vegetive nature of Plants.
1675. J. Smith, Chr. Relig. App., II. 15. Man had not Power so much as over the green Herb, to deprive it of its Vegetive Life;… but by God’s Donation.
1830. Coleridge, Church & State (1839), 192. Thus, without the first power, that of growth, or what Bichat and others name the vegetive life or productivity, the second power … could not exist.
1852. Bailey, Festus (ed. 5), 333. What if it were that life … through all The countless grades, vegetive, animal, Of nature should progress at last to man.
2. Endowed with the faculty of vegetation or growth; = VEGETATIVE a. 1 b.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 140. The Castle of Catie, about which there is nothing vegetiue, but a few solitary Palmes.
1642. H. More, Song Soul, II. I. ii. xlvii. That full grasp of vast Eternitie ’Longs not to beings simply vegetive.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 41. Such as are alwayes vegetive and juicy.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., III. 1076. So man, at first a Drop, dilates with Heat, First vegetive, then feels, and reasons last. Ibid. (1700), Ovid’s Met., I. 751. The Tree still panted in the unfinish’d part, Not wholly vegetive, and heav’d her Heart.
† b. Of the soul: = VEGETATIVE a. 1 a. Obs.
a. 1623. W. Pemble, Justification (1629), 196. The Vegetiue soule whereby Plants liue.
c. Covered with or productive of vegetation.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 68. Ocean and continent, sea, desert, plain Mineral and vegetive.
d. Leading a merely physical existence. Cf. VEGETATIVE a. 6.
1882. Symonds, Animi Figura, 111. Shall these arise winged by immortal mind, Who toiled on earth obscure and vegetive?
B. sb. = VEGETATIVE sb. 2, VEGETABLE sb. 2.
Common in the 17th c.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., XIII. lxxvi. (1612), 316. Nor lesse the only Vegitiues, as trees, fruits, herbes, and such.
a. 1640. Massinger, Old Law, I. i. Make us better then those vegetives Whose soules die within em.
1678. T. P[orter], Fr. Conjurer, I. 8. Have you not already eat about three parts of a Pilchard, besides a dish of Vegetives?
1689. Plunket, Char. Good Commander, etc., 55. The Sun to Plants more welcome is…. Thus they of Vegetives might learn some good.
1819. H. Busk, Banquet, III. 479. In snug retreat this vegetive [i.e., a mushroom] demure, From human reach long deem’d itself secure.
