INSTINCTIVE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Instinctive

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/ɪnstˈɪŋktɪv/ Listen

adjective

Instinctive adj. Of or pertaining to instinct; derived from, or prompted by, instinct; of the nature of instinct; determined by natural impulse or propensity; acting or produced without reasoning, deliberation, instruction, or experience; spontaneous. "Instinctive motion." "Instinctive dread." "With taste instinctive give Each grace appropriate." "Have we had instinctive intimations of the death of some absent friends?" Note: The terms instinctive belief, instinctive judgment, instinctive cognition, are expressions not ill adapted to characterize a belief, judgment, or cognition, which, as the result of no anterior consciousness, is, like the products of animal instinct, the intelligent effect of (as far as we are concerned) an unknown cause.

Synonyms: Natural; voluntary; spontaneous; original; innate; inherent; automatic.

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Etymology of 'Instinctive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Instinctive" Quotes from Famous Books

... be easily guessable by the lowest human insight. Not that either of them ever mentioned precaution to the other; all its advantages would have vanished with open acknowledgment of its necessity. These arrangements were instinctive on the part of both, and each credited the other with a ...

— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... any particular strain or line but what irritates and antagonizes me in any environment is the presumption on the part of the creator of that environment that theirs is the only world-view. I suppose the really strongest thing in me is an instinctive spirit of contradiction, for I always rise spontaneously against anything and everything that is proclaimed to me as being so. This is perhaps rather sweeping but it is more or less so. People influence me never by what they tell me but by the general impression they make on me and ...

— Nelka - Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch • Michael Moukhanoff

... had only met Barthorpe Herapath once or twice, and who had formed an instinctive and peculiar dislike to him, for which he could not account, accepted the invitation to be brief. In a few words he told exactly what had happened ...

— The Herapath Property • J. S. Fletcher

... to establish, at his own expense, a public school in his native town. He meets with ostensible support from all, especially Padre Damaso's successor, a young and gloomy Franciscan named Padre Salvi, for whom Maria Clara confesses to an instinctive dread. ...

— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal

... all new ideas and reforms of a moral and political order. They are adopted with the instinctive fear, the vague apprehension inspired by the new and unknown. There is much talk of their objectional features and dangers for the established order of things. You might think the firmament was going to crumble to pieces ...

— The Woman and the Right to Vote • Rafael Palma

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