costive

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of costive In fact, their writings are more pungent now that they have been liberated from the costive confines of the movement. Jacob Heilbrunn, The New Republic, 23 Jan. 2020 Movies coiled up in other movies have a habit of becoming either costive or cute, but somehow Falardeau avoids the traps. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 15 May 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for costive
Adjective
  • Those who are approved must cope with notoriously unreliable in-home nursing, a byproduct of the state’s penurious reimbursement rates.
    Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 17 Jan. 2025
  • Those who are approved must cope with notoriously unreliable in-home nursing, a byproduct of the state’s penurious reimbursement rates.
    Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 17 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • But, even though there was nothing the slightest bit ungracious or ungenerous about her performance, it was felt more like the audience being asked to come to her.
    Chris Willman, Variety, 26 Apr. 2025
  • Perhaps most perplexing about Smash, though, is its weirdly cynical, ungenerous take on the Bombshell herself.
    Greg Evans, Deadline, 10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • This parsimonious approach protects you from overdoing it when a less resource-intensive and even faster way to get the data would have been enough.
    Julius Černiauskas, Forbes.com, 6 June 2025
  • Driving the reluctant interviewee to the Manchester airport for the flight to Washington, Rudman discovered that his famously parsimonious friend had only $3 in his wallet.
    Barbara A. Perry, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 May 2025
Adjective
  • But the approval process has been slow, the discounts vary from carrier to carrier, the requirements coming from insurers don’t always match the state’s own standards and the savings on offer are, according to some, miserly.
    CalMatters, Mercury News, 30 Apr. 2025
  • Newcastle's player sale profits were miserly for years until June 2024 Profit on player sales from 2014 to 2024 (£millions) Column chart of Newcastle United profit on player sales, where club record £69.8m in 2023-24 far outweigh what came before.
    Chris Weatherspoon, New York Times, 23 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • In the late 1800s, two child psychologists coined the term only child syndrome to describe the negative traits that their research showed only children often possess, including being spoiled, selfish, maladjusted, and anti-social.
    Liz Hammond, Vogue, 11 June 2025
  • What if the very structure of our success makes having children feel like a selfish, impossible luxury?
    Alexander Puutio, Forbes.com, 9 June 2025
Adjective
  • Suggesting that a white male president of a certain age hears a piece of bad news and drops dead in the Oval seemed uncharitable.
    Katie Campione, Deadline, 5 June 2025
  • Politics is a dirty game where partisans are incentivized to be as uncharitable about the other side as possible.
    Sal Rodriguez, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 May 2025
Adjective
  • Behind a stingy defensive performance, the Valkyries defeated the Storm 76-70 on Saturday to win their third straight game.
    Nathan Canilao, Mercury News, 14 June 2025
  • Nationally, the stingiest bosses were in Louisiana, who gave only 2.8% raises late last year.
    Jonathan Lansner, Oc Register, 6 June 2025
Adjective
  • Every year, a complacent, tightfisted city council turned down the recommendations.
    Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2023
  • Kotick played the tightfisted owner of the Oakland A’s.
    Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 31 May 2023

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Cite this Entry

“Costive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/costive. Accessed 19 Jun. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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