EXPANSIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Expansive

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/ɪkspˈænsɪv/ Listen

adjective

Expansive adj.

Having a capacity or tendency to expand or dilate; diffusive; of much expanse; wide-extending; as, the expansive force of heat; the expansive quality of air. "A more expansive and generous compassion." "His forehead was broad and expansive."

Causing expansion; as, the expansive force of heat.

Of much expanse; wide-extending; as, an expansive view of the mountains.

Friendly, open, and unrestrained in conversation or discourse; of people; as, wine made the guest expansive.

Synonyms: effusive, talkative.

Characterized by exaggerated feelings of euphoria and delusions of grandeur.

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Etymology of 'Expansive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Expansive" Quotes from Famous Books

... was a far and belated outpost of West Asia and of a manvantara that had ended over a century before:—there was no question of her winning. Though we see her only through Roman eyes, we may judge very well that no possibility of expansion was left in her. There was no expansive force. She threw out tentacles to suck in wealth and trade, but was already dead at heart. All the greatness of old West Asia was concentrated, in her, in two men: Hamilcar Barca and his son: they shed a certain ...

— The Crest-Wave of Evolution • Kenneth Morris

... as it were, oil his tempers, amidst the gentler spirits of more southern climes. Travelling, indeed, through any climes, may be expected to exert this mitigating influence upon the mind. Nature is so truly gentle, or, to speak more justly, the God of nature displays so expansive a benevolence in all his works; so prodigally sheds his blessings "upon the evil and the good;" builds up so many exquisite fabrics to delight the eyes of his creatures; tinges the flowers with such colours, and fills the grove with such music; that anyone who becomes ...

— Early Reviews of English Poets • John Louis Haney

... large areas and scanty population it should at all times have. New markets should be opened for the surplus slave-population; to open new markets was to acquire new territory; and to acquire new territory was to gain additional political strength. The expansive tendencies of freedom would thus be checked by the tendencies no less expansive of bondage. To acquire Texas was not merely to acquire an additional Slave State, but it was to keep up a demand for slaves which would prevent Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky from ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 55, May, 1862 • Various

... So expansive a mind as Raleigh's undoubtedly was, was not free from that universal credulity which still reigns in the breasts of all men respecting matters with which they are not personally acquainted; and the glowing descriptions of Columbus and his followers ...

— Canada and the Canadians - Volume I • Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle

... him once on a time; she had bored him with a thousand servilities that had only estranged him the more. Lively once, expansive and affectionate, in growing older she had become (after the fashion of wine that, exposed to air, turns to vinegar) ill-tempered, grumbling, irritable. She had suffered so much without complaint at first, until she had seem him going after all the village drabs, and ...

— Madame Bovary • Gustave Flaubert

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