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Pertaining to, or serving to constitute, the character; showing the character, or distinctive qualities or traits, of a person or thing; peculiar; distinctive. Characteristic clearness of temper. Macaulay.

To make distinct and recognizable by peculiar marks or traits; to make with distinctive features. European, Asiatic, Chinese, African, and Grecian faces are Characterized. Arbuthot.

The art or means of characterizing; a system of signs or characters; symbolism; distinctive mark. Fairies use flowers for their charactery. Shak.

The distinctive dress of any profession, especially of the clergy; hence, the clerical profession. Appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth Macaulay. The cloth, the clergy, are constituted for administering and for giving the best possible effect to .…

The young of the equine genus or horse kind of animals; -- sometimes distinctively applied to the male, filly being the female. Cf. Foal.

Dress in general; esp., the distinctive style of dress of a people, class, or period.

The plume of feathers, or other decoration, worn on a helmet; the distinctive ornament of a helmet, indicating the rank of the weare; hence, also, the helmet. Stooping low his lofty crest. Sir W. Scott. And on his head there stood upright A crest, in token of a knight. Gower.

To call by a distinctive title; to name.

That which designates; a distinguishing mark or name; distinctive title; appellation. The usual designation of the days of the week. Whewell.

Distinguishing; distinctive; defining. [R.] -- Di`o*ris"tic*al*ly, adv. [R.] Dr. H. More.

To see and identify by noting a difference or differences; to note the distinctive character of; to discriminate; to distinguish. To discern such buds as are fit to produce blossoms. Boyle. A counterfeit stone which thine eye can not discern from a right stone. Robynson (More's Utopia).

Marking a difference; distinguishing; distinctive; characteristic. That peculiar and discriminative form of life. Johnson.

Not set apart from others by visible marks; to make distinctive or discernible by exhibiting differences; to mark off by some characteristic. Not more distinguished by her purple vest, Than by the charming features of her face. Dryden. Milton has distinguished the sweetbrier and the eglantine. Nares.…

Constituting difference, or distinction from everything else; distinctive; peculiar; characteristic. The distinguishing doctrines of our holy religion. Locke. Distinguishing pennant (Naut.), a special pennant by which any particular vessel in a fleet is recognized and signaled. Simmonds.

l logical accidents; that quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything; distinctive character; hence, virtue or quality of a thing, separated from its grosser parts. The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under. Landor. Gifts and alms are the expressi…

Having no distinct or distinctive features.

The vessel which carries the commanding officer of a fleet or squadron and flies his distinctive flag or pennant.

is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance. The form of his visage was changed. Dan. iii. 19. And woven close close, both matter, form, and style. Milton.

To make German, or like what is distinctively German; as, to Germanize a province, a language, a society.

Wholly or distinctively vegetable. Holophytic nutrition (, that form of nutrition, characteristic of vegetable organisms, in which carbonic acid, ammonia, and nitrates are absorbed as food, in distinction from the animal mode of nutrition, by the ingestion of albuminous matter.