a. [f. L. type *exstinctīv-us, f. ex(s)tinguĕre (see EXTINGUISH). Cf. Fr. exstinctif.] Tending, or having the power, to extinguish; causing annihilation. Const. of.
a. 1623. Swinburne, Spousals (1686), 138. This Condition is … resolutive or extinctive, that is to say … threatening a death or destruction to that which is born.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., IV. i. O ye hapless Two, mutually extinctive, the Beautiful and the Squalid, sleep ye well.
1871. Contemp. Rev., XVI. 543. The third class of extinctive agencies … seems … to threaten many of the Malayan and Polynesian races.
1883. Athenæum, 10 March, 1/1. The Extinctive Effect of Free Water on the Rolling of Ships.
Hence ǁ Extinctively adv., so as to be extinguished.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter iii. 4. 1171. If they [i.e., souls] die not, extinctively, what becomes of them?
