a. and sb. [f. L. stimulāre: see STIMULATE v. and -ATIVE.]
A. adj. Having the property of stimulating; of a stimulating nature or character. Const. of, to.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 200. This would be like spreading the stimulative power of manure over large tracts of waste land.
1836. Hor. Smith, Tin Trump. (1876), 217. More stimulative of the risible faculties.
1854. Milman, Lat. Chr., III. ii. I. 271. Ulphilas … left out the Books of Kings, as too congenial and too stimulative to their warlike propensities.
1906. E. A. Abbott, Silanus, xvi. 143. This belief I found also stimulative to well-doing.
B. sb. Something having a stimulating quality; a motive inciting to action; a stimulus, incentive. Now rare or Obs. (Common c. 1750–1800.)
1747. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xxxi. 225. There are so many stimulatives to such a spirit as mine in this affair, besides love.
1790. By-stander, 297. Otherwise there could be no stimulative to industry, no encouragement to invention.
† b. = STIMULANT B. 2. Obs. rare–1.
1808. Ann. Reg., Charact., 68. Coffee is not a favourite drink with the Spaniards; he needs no stimulative.
