a. [ad. L. *suggestīvus, f. suggest-: see SUGGEST v. and -IVE. Cf. It. soggestivo, Pg. suggestivo; F. suggestif is from Eng.]
† 1. Law. Resting upon a ‘suggestion’ or information: see SUGGESTION 4. Obs.
16[?]. in W. Prynne, Abridgem. Rec. Tower London (1657), 15. That no pardon be granted to any outlawed by any suggestive means, but only by Parliament. [See Rolls of Parlt., II. 376/1.]
2. Calculated or fitted to suggest thoughts, ideas, a course of action, etc.; conveying a suggestion or hint; implying something that is not directly expressed.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 501. A Nunne … by sundrie suggestiue reuelations gaue out, that, he should not raigne.
1828. Whately, Rhetoric, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), I. 284/1. The Suggestive kind of writing we are speaking of.
1856. N. Brit. Rev., XXVI. 208. Some thoughtful and suggestive chapters by M. de Remusat.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. 35. It is a living language, pregnant and suggestive.
1884. Christ. Commw., 21 Feb., 448/2. It is a suggestive fact that the first thing the Apostle Peter commands us to add to our faith, is courage.
b. Const. of that which is suggested.
1850. T. T. Lynch, Theoph. Trinal, vii. 134. Beautiful things are suggestive of a higher and purer life.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 413. Rough grass, acres of beans and barley, and ploughed fields do not delight the eye, they are not naturally suggestive of anything beyond themselves.
1880. Geikie, Phys. Geog., iv. 165. An observant eye cannot fail to notice much that is suggestive of inquiry.
c. Of a thinker or writer.
1857. Smiles, Stephenson (1859), 49. He was a good talker … and a very suggestive thinker.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, III. xxii. (1878), 324. The critical basis on which this suggestive author builds his hope of the ‘Destiny of the Race.’
d. euphem. Apt to suggest something indecent.
1889. Gunter, That Frenchman, xi. 128. Her incomparable drolleries and naughtinesses, in some suggestive opera bouffe, some musical debauch.
3. Of a method, plan, etc.: That suggests itself.
1806. P. Colquhoun (title), Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis, containing a Detail of the various Crimes and Misdemeanours, and Suggestive Remedies.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., vii. 190. No plan was so suggestive as that of quenching his sight.
4. Pertaining to hypnotic suggestion.
1903. F. W. H. Myers, Human Pers., I. 154. The suggestive or hypnotic induction of supernormal powers.
Hence Suggestively adv., in a suggestive manner; in the way of suggestion; so as to suggest something.
1859. Ruskin, Two Paths, v. § 141. The subject is … too wide to be more than suggestively treated.
1884. Julia D. Whiting, in Harper’s Mag., Oct. 744/2. ‘If there was any one that hed money to spare,’ one added, suggestively.
1891. W. Clark Russell, Curatica, 20. My old schoolmaster … with his right arm suggestively withdrawn behind his back, as though he were hiding some deadly weapon of offence.
