pursive
/ˈpɜː(ɹ)sɪv/
pursive is the obsolete form of pursy.
Meaning of pursy
Adjective (1)
pursy (comparative pursier, superlative pursiest)
- Out of breath; short of breath, especially due to fatness.
- now breathless wrong
Shall sit and pant in your great chairs of ease,
And pursy insolence shall break his wind
With fear and horrid flight.c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- now breathless wrong
- Fat and short.
- Now I will give you a Picture of this Wretch: She is a broad, squat, pursy, fat Thing, quite ugly, if any thing human can be so called […]1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXI”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 146
Adjective (2)
pursy (comparative pursier, superlative pursiest)
- Puckered.
- So Aunt Bell sat down to table—a bony frame, with an anxious green eye, a pursy mouth, and a sweating sickness of bitter words, seeking to break forth at the earliest opportunity.1861, W. G. Wills, chapter 23, in Notice to Quit, volume 1, London: Hurst & Blackett, pages 242–243
- Purse-proud; vain about one's wealth.
Forms of pursive
| comparative | more pursive |
|---|---|
| superlative | most pursive |
Words formed from pursive
Words that rhyme with pursive
- recursive
- cursive
- immersive
- adversive
- animadversive
- aversive
- conversive
- discursive
- dispersive
- excursive
- introversive
- semicursive
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- subversive
- abstersive
- antidiscursive
- antisubversive
- aspersive
- co-recursive
- compersive
- contraversive
- corecursive
- counterdiscursive
- countersubversive
- cyberdiscursive
- detersive
- electrodispersive
- eversive
- extroversive
- immunosubversive
- incursive
- interconversive
- interdiscursive
- inversive
- ipsiversive
- left-recursive
- macrodiscursive
- metadiscursive
- microdiscursive
- monodispersive
- nonaversive
- noncursive
- nondiscursive
- nondispersive
- nonimmersive
- nonrecursive
- nonsubversive
- overdispersive
- perversive
- photoaversive
- polydispersive
- precursive
- primitive recursive
- proaversive
- procursive
- reversive
- Roman cursive
- semiodiscoursive
- submersive
- subrecursive
- superrecursive
Questions about pursive
- What is pursive the obsolete form of?
- Pursive is the obsolete form of pursy.
- How do you pronounce pursive?
- Pursive is pronounced /ˈpɜː(ɹ)sɪv/.
Words near pursive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pursive (page history and authors); pursy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “pursive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pursive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.