Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Missive

Mis′sive

,
Adj.
[See
Missive
,
Noun.
]
1.
Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent;
as, a letter
missive
.
Ayliffe.
2.
Missile.
“The missive weapons fly.”
Dryden.
Letters missive
,
letters conveying the permission, comand, or advice of a superior authority, as a sovereign. They are addressed and sent to some certain person or persons, and are distinguished from letters patent, which are addressed to the public.

Mis′sive

,
Noun.
[F. lettre
missive
. See
Mission
,
Noun.
]
1.
That which is sent; a writing containing a message.
2.
One who is sent; a messenger.
[Obs.]
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition


Missive

MIS'SIVE

,
Adj.
Such as is sent; as a letter missive.
1.
Thrown or sent, or such as may be sent; as a missive weapon.

MIS'SIVE

,
Noun.
A letter sent, or messenger.

Definition 2024


missive

missive

English

Noun

missive (plural missives)

  1. (formal) A written message; a letter, note or memo.
    • 2008, Claire Armistead, The Guardian, 25 Oct 2008:
      The Madonna letters, which are interspersed with more personal missives in this curious epistolary memoir, accumulate into a rap about the downsides of celebrity - the problems of ageing, of invaded privacy, of becoming vain and impetuously adopting children from other continents.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 71:
      "Curses throttle thee!" yelled Ahab. "Captain Mayhew, stand by now to receive it"; and taking the fatal missive from Starbuck's hands, he caught it in the slit of the pole, and reached it over towards the boat.
  2. (obsolete) One who is sent; a messenger.
    Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it came missives from the King, who all hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor,’ by which title these Weird Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail king that shalt be.’

Translations

Adjective

missive (not comparable)

  1. Specially sent; intended or prepared to be sent.
    a letter missive
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ayliffe to this entry?)
  2. missile
    • Dryden
      The missive weapons fly.

French

Noun

missive f (plural missives)

  1. missive

Italian

Noun

missive f

  1. plural of missiva