Definition of "partitive" [par•ti•tive]

• Dividing or serving to divide something into parts; marked by division. (adjective)
• Grammar Indicating a part as distinct from a whole, as some of the coffee in the sentence She drank some of the coffee. (adjective)
• Grammar A partitive word, such as many or less. (noun)
• Grammar A partitive construction or case. (noun)

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.

• "If she made such a point of other people’s knowing that we ‘had money’ (for she knew nothing of what Saint-Loup used to call partitive articles, and said simply ‘have money,’ ‘fetch water’), of their realising that we were rich, it was not because riches with nothing else besides, riches without virtue, were in her eyes the supreme good in life; but virtue without riches was not her ideal either."
• "To claim Jesus is referring to the first part of the creation process itself (a kind of partitive use of the genitive) introduces unnecessary confusion."
• "It is actually a great help, because most Etruscan grammars both those in books and online materials simply do not deal with cases like the partitive, commitative or directive, because "they are not universally accepted among scholars"."