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ng or expressing distinction or difference; distinguishing; characteristic; peculiar. The distinctive character and institutions of New England. Bancroft.

With distinction; plainly.

State of being distinctive.

having the quality of contradistinction; distinguishing by contrast. -- Con`tra*dis*tinc"tive, n.

Having nothing distinctive; common. -- In`dis*tinc"tive*ness, n.

Making no distinctions; not discriminating; impartial. As undistinctive Death will come here one day. Dickens.

getable blue or violet colors. They are also characterized by the power of destroying the distinctive properties of alkalies or bases, combining with them to form salts, at the same time losing their own peculiar properties. They all contain hydrogen, united with a more negative element or radical, either alone, or mor…

To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of, so that the specific thing no longer exists; as, to annihilate a forest by cutting down the trees. "To annihilate the army." Macaulay.

Pertaining to a common name; serving as a distinctive denomination; denominative; naming. Cudworth.

A distinctive mark, token, sign, or cognizance, worn on the person; as, the badge of a society; the badge of a policeman. "Tax gatherers, recognized by their official badges. " Prescott.

The distinctive badge of certain temperance or total abstinence organizations, as of the Blue ribbon Army. -- Blue ruin, utter ruin; also, gin. [Eng. Slang] Carlyle. -- Blue spar (Min.), azure spar; lazulite. See Lazulite. -- Blue thrush (Zoöl.), a European and Asiatic thrush (Petrocossyphus cyaneas). -- Blue verdi…

To burn a distinctive mark into or upon with a hot iron, to indicate quality, ownership, etc., or to mark as infamous (as a convict).

A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants), perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by inheritance. Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed. Shak. Greyhounds of the best breed. Carpenter.

olic, or Broad Church, by its friends; Latitudinarian or Indifferent, by its enemies. Its distinctive character is the desire of comprehension. Its watch words are charity and toleration. Conybeare.

One who, or that which, resembles another in distinctive qualities or traits of character. He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster. Prov. xviii. 9. That April morn Of this the very brother. Wordsworth.

Plain white cloth made from cotton, but which receives distinctive names according to quality and use, as, super calicoes, shirting calicoes, unbleached calicoes, etc. [Eng.] The importation of printed or stained colicoes appears to have been coeval with the establishment of the East India Company. Beck (Draper's Dict.…

The dress prescribed by canon to be worn by a clergyman when oficiating. Sometimes, any distinctive professional dress. Full canonicals, the complete costume of an officiating clergyman or ecclesiastic.

A judicial court of chancery, which in England and in the United States is distinctively a court with equity jurisdiction.

A distinctive mark; a character; a letter or sign. [Obs.] See Character. In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms. Shak.

A distinctive mark; a letter, figure, or symbol. It were much to be wished that there were throughout the world but one sort of character for each letter to express it to the eye. Holder.