a. and sb. [Formed after LEGISLATION, LEGISLATOR, by substitution of suffix: see -ATIVE. Cf. F. législatif (recorded from the 14th c.), Sp., Pg., It. legislativo; a med.L. *lēgislātīvus probably existed.]
A. adj.
1. That legislates or makes laws; having the function of legislating.
Legislative assembly (Fr. Hist.), the body of legislators which succeeded the National or Constituent assembly in 1791; also, the legislature which succeeded the Constituent assembly of 1849.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 269. I have learned to distinguish between … the Decretive and Legislative will of God.
1654. Cromwell, Sp., 12 Sept., in Carlyle. It is the conversion of a parliament … to a legislative power always sitting.
1674. Baker’s Chron., 584/1. The peoples Legislative Deputies in Parliament.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. ii. 146. If half of the members met, and half absented themselves, who shall determine which is really the legislative body, the part assembled, or that which stays away?
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVI. 173/1. On the 30th of September [1791], this National Assembly … dissolved itself, and gave place to the succeeding Legislative National Assembly.
1858. J. B. Norton, Topics, 154. The Legislative Council [of India].
2. Of or pertaining to legislation or the making of laws.
c. 1641. Denham, On Strafford’s Trial & D., 25. Their Legislative Frenzy they repent, Enacting it should make no President.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xx. 106. It belongeth therefore to the Soveraigne … to præscribe the Rules of discerning Good and Evill … and therefore in him is the Legislative Power.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Music, v. 79. During the early Periods of Civilization, the legislative Art is always of an imperfect Form.
1795. Burke, Scarcity, Wks. VII. 383. Legislative acts require the exactest detail of circumstances … in order … to elicit principles … to direct a practical legislative proceeding.
1870. D. Macrae, Amer. at Home, II. x. 150–1. They [spittoons] cover … the floors of all the Legislative Halls throughout the country.
b. Enacted or appointed by legislation.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 290. Nor did the Estates mention the use of torture among the grievances which required a legislative remedy.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 308. Legislative penalties were imposed.
1878. Lecky, Eng. in 18th C., II. v. 50. The remedy for the evil was found in the legislative emancipation of Scotch industry.
B. sb.
1. The power of legislating or making laws; the body in which this power is vested, the legislature. Opposed to ‘executive.’ Now rare.
1642. Jer. Taylor, Episc. (1647), 292. What authority is equall to this Legislative of the Bishops?
1689. W. A., Ld. Chief Just. Herbert’s Acc. Examined, 5. The King has not the Legislative exclusive of others.
1689. Locke, Govt., II. § 141. xi. (1694), 276. The Legislative cannot transfer the Power of making Laws to any other hands.
1712. Berkeley, Pass. Obedience, § 22. To pay an absolute submission to the decrees of some certain legislative.
1836. Alison, Hist. Europe (1847), V. 26. It [the Polish constitution] fell when the legislative became more corrupt then the executive.
† 2. ? Something appointed by legislative enactment. Obs.
1650. Elderfield, Civ. Right Tythes, xvi. 94. He this Edgar, had them questionless from … Alfred,… from Ina, Offa, Ethelbert, &c. to whose tendries he added what seemed fit of the Legislatives of West-Saxony.
