a. [ad. late L. extensīv-us, f. extendĕre (pa. pple. extensus): see EXTEND and -IVE. Cf. F. extensif.]
† 1. Capable of being extended; extensible. Obs.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. iii. E 1 b. These two [Mercury and Sulphure] Make the rest ductile, malleable, extensiue.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.
1663. Boyle, Exp. on Colours (1664), 356 (J.). Silver Beaters usually chuse the finest Coyn they can get, as that which is most extensive under the Hammer.
† 2. Tending to cause extension or stretching out. Obs. rare–1.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. i. 105. Station is … one kinde of motion … which Physitians (from Galen) doe name extensive or tonicall.
b. That has the effect of extending or enlarging in scope.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. xxxiii. 597. This bastard extensive interpretation ex ratione juris is frequently styled ‘analogical.’
3. a. of material things: Extending over or occupying a large surface or space; having a wide extent, widely extended. Of capital, purchases, etc.: Large in amount.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Extensive … that Extends, or Reaches far.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scot. in 1772, 412. The extensive plantations in his garden, and on the picturesque hills round his lands.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. iii. I. 19. By means of water-carriage a more extensive market is opened.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 28. Along the extensive mucous tract … absorption is constantly going on.
1849–50. Alison, Hist. Europe, VII. xlii. § 53. 134. Extensive capital had … been sunk in the traffic.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. xxiii. 71. That empire … was the most extensive that had ever obeyed a single chief.
1872. Raymond, Statist. Mines & Mining, 283. Extensive silver veins and deposits.
b. Of immaterial things: Far-reaching, large in comprehension or scope; wide in application or operation; comprehensive; also, lengthy, full of detail. † Extensive to: that extends to, applicable to, comprehensive of.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. iv. § 5. E 4 b. The reprehension of Saint Paule, was … extensiue to all knowledge.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 105. I am bound to take Scripture in the most extensive sence.
a. 1748. Watts, Improv. Mind, II. i. An extensive survey of the branches of any science.
1754. Edwards, Freed. Will, III. iv. 165. Inability … may be more general and extensive to all Acts of that Kind.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. 1842, I. 14. A piece of flagrant and extensive wickedness.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. p. ix. Our limits will not permit us to indulge in extensive quotation.
1863. H. Cox, Instit., III. viii. 705. The Mutiny Act constitutes an extensive code of martial law.
c. So of persons, their faculties, etc. Obs. or rare.
a. 1631. Donne, 6 Serm., i. (1634), 2. A Livie or a Guicciardine or such extensive and voluminous authours.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (ed. 3), II. 120. He was … extensive in his Charity.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 138. The God of day, Who all surveys with his extensive eye.
1749. Berkeley, Word to Wise, Wks. III. 448. Idleness, that extensive parent of many miseries and many sins.
1768. W. Gilpin, Ess. Prints (ed. 2), 63. In a word, he was certainly a man of a very extensive genius.
4. Of or pertaining to extension (in sense 7 b); characterized by, or possessed of, extension; occupying space.
1624. Gataker, Transubst., 114. Vnlesse his bodie had therein a corporall extensiue and sensible manner of existing.
1877. E. Caird, Philos. Kant, II. xi. 442. Space and time are necessarily represented as extensive quanta.
1886. J. Ward, in Encycl. Brit., XX. 53. We do not first experience a succession of touches … by means of movements, and then, when these impressions are simultaneously presented, regard them as extensive because they are associated with … the original series of movements.
5. Of or pertaining to extension (in sense 8 b); denoting a large number of objects. Opposed to intensive.
1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, II. xiii. 333. This haps mostly when there wants of Assistance, Extensive or Intensive.
1725. Watts, Logick, I. vi. § 13. 218. When this Art teaches us to distribute any extensive Idea into its different Kinds or Species, it may be compared to the prismatick Glass.
1837–8. Sir W. Hamilton, Logic, xv. (1866), I. 272. Every notion has not only an Extensive, but likewise an Intensive quantity.
