Cumulative

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Cumulative \Cu"mu*la*tive\ (k?"m?-l?-t?v), a. [Cf. F.
     cumulatif.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Composed of parts in a heap; forming a mass; aggregated.
        "As for knowledge which man receiveth by teaching, it is
        cumulative, not original." --Bacon


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Augmenting, gaining, or giving force, by successive
        additions; as, a cumulative argument, i. e., one whose
        force increases as the statement proceeds.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The argument . . . is in very truth not logical and
              single, but moral and cumulative.     --Trench.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law)
        (a) Tending to prove the same point to which other
            evidence has been offered; -- said of evidence.
        (b) Given by same testator to the same legatee; -- said of
            a legacy. --Bouvier. --Wharton.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     {Cumulative action} (Med.), that action of certain drugs, by
        virtue of which they produce, when administered in small
        doses repeated at considerable intervals, the same effect
        as if given in a single large dose.
  
     {Cumulative poison}, a poison the action of which is
        cumulative.
  
     {Cumulative vote} or {Cumulative system of voting}
        (Politics), that system which allows to each voter as many
        votes as there are persons to be voted for, and permits
        him to accumulate these votes upon one person, or to
        distribute them among the candidates as he pleases.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  cumulative
       adj : increasing by successive addition; "the benefits are
             cumulative"; "the eventual accumulative effect of these
             substances" [syn: {accumulative}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  63 Moby Thesaurus words for "cumulative":
     absolute, accumulated, accumulative, additional, additive,
     additory, adducible, admissible, advancing, amassed, attestative,
     attestive, authentic, based on, certain, chain, circumstantial,
     conclusive, convincing, damning, decisive, determinative,
     documentary, documented, evidential, evidentiary, ex parte,
     eye-witness, factual, final, firsthand, founded on, grounded on,
     hearsay, heightening, implicit, incontrovertible, increasing,
     indicative, indisputable, intensifying, irrefutable, irresistible,
     magnifying, material, multiplying, nuncupative, overall,
     overwhelming, presumptive, probative, reliable, significant,
     snowballing, suggestive, summational, summative, sure, symptomatic,
     telling, total, valid, weighty
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  CUMULATIVE. Forming a heap; additional; as, cumulative evidence, or that 
  which goes to prove the same point which has been established by other 
  evidence. Cumulative legacy, or accumulative legacy, is a second bequest, 
  given by the same testator to the same legatee. 2 Rop. Log. 19,. See 1 
  Saund. 134, n. 4; Remedy.