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Definition of "costive" []

  • Suffering from constipation. (adjective)
  • Causing constipation. (adjective)
  • Slow; sluggish. (adjective)
  • Stingy. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "costive" in a sentence
  • "And it can be costive, which is the last thing she needs with that wound in her stomach."
  • "There is really no way of reading these often rather costive and puzzling early books without wondering on every page what, in them, is leading towards the immense achievements of those two big last novels."
  • "Finally, Susan knelt, costive, to the scrub, arms bent out and away, and picked up her skein, gradually attaching it to her belt."