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Serving to explain; containing explanation; as explanatory notes. Swift.

Serving to fill up; expletive; superfluous; as, an expletory word. Bp. Burnet.

Serving to unfold or explain; tending to lay open to the understanding; explanatory. Sir W. Hamilton.

Serving or intended to explore; searching; examining; explorative. Sir H. Wotton.

Serving to explain; expository. Bp. Pearson.

Pertaining to, or containing, exposition; serving to explain; explanatory; illustrative; exegetical. A glossary or expository index to the poetical writers. Johnson.

Serving to express, utter, or represent; indicative; communicative; -- followed by of; as, words expressive of his gratitude. Each verse so swells expressive of her woes. Tickell.

Having the power of driving out or away; serving to expel. The expulsive power of a new affection. Chalmers.

Tending or serving to expurgate; expurgatory. Milman.

Serving to purify from anything noxious or erroneous; cleansing; purifying. "Expurgatory animadversions." Sir T. Browne. Expurgatory Index. See Index Expurgatorius, under Index.

An apparatus for drying substances or preserving them from moisture; a desiccator; also, less frequently, an agent employed to absorb moisture, as calcium chloride, or concentrated sulphuric acid.

Serving or tending to extort. [R.] Johnson. -- Ex*tor"sive*ly, adv. [R.]

Tending or serving to extract or draw out. Certain branches of industry are conveniently designated extractive: e.g., agriculture, pastoral and mining pursuits, cutting of lumber, etc. Cairnes.

A block, or ring, serving as a guide for the running rigging or for any rope.

Serving to disappoint or deceive; delusive; unsatisfying. "Yonder faithless phantom." Goldsmith. -- Faith"less*ly, adv.Faith"less*ness, n.

Having the power of serving or accomplishing fate. "The fateful steel." J. Barlow.

A medicine serving to mitigate or remove fever. -- a.

n associate; a partner; a sharer. The fellows of his crime. Milton. We are fellows still, Serving alike in sorrow. Shak. That enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude. Gibbon.

Anything serving as a cushion to lessen the shock when a vessel comes in contact with another vessel or a wharf.

Something serving to rouse or excite. I take a glass of grog for a filip. Dickens.