Definition of "transitive" [tran•si•tive]

• Grammar Expressing an action carried from the subject to the object; requiring a direct object to complete meaning. Used of a verb or verb construction. (adjective)
• Characterized by or involving transition. (adjective)
• Logic & Mathematics Of or relating to a relationship between three elements such that if the relationship holds between the first and second elements and between the second and third elements, it necessarily holds between the first and third elements. Examples of transitive relationships are equality for numbers and divisibility for integers. (adjective)
• Grammar A transitive verb. (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.

• "One metric of trust is transitive, that is, the trustworthiness of the people who trust someone."
• "On the one hand, the notion of transitive creature consciousness seems like a close cousin to the notion of intentionality."
• "When the verb is transitive, that is, when the action cannot happen without affecting something, the thing affected is called the _object_."