sensitive

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: sen=si=tive
• COUNT in NET: 3 in 3 verses (in OT : 3 in 3 verses)

CIDE DICTIONARY

sensitive, a. [F. sensitif. See Sense.].

•  Having sense of feeling; possessing or exhibiting the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; as, a sensitive soul.  [1913 Webster]
•  Having quick and acute sensibility, either to the action of external objects, or to impressions upon the mind and feelings; highly susceptible; easily and acutely affected.  [1913 Webster]

  "She was too sensitive to abuse and calumny."  [1913 Webster]
•  Having a capacity of being easily affected or moved; as, a sensitive thermometer; sensitive scales.  [1913 Webster]
•  Serving to affect the sense; sensible.  [1913 Webster]

  "A sensitive love of some sensitive objects."  [1913 Webster]
•  Of or pertaining to sensation; depending on sensation; as, sensitive motions; sensitive muscular motions excited by irritation.  E. Darwin.  [1913 Webster]

Sensitive fern (Bot.), an American fern (Onoclea sensibilis), the leaves of which, when plucked, show a slight tendency to fold together. -- Sensitive flame (Physics), a gas flame so arranged that under a suitable adjustment of pressure it is exceedingly sensitive to sounds, being caused to roar, flare, or become suddenly shortened or extinguished, by slight sounds of the proper pitch. -- Sensitive joint vetch (Bot.), an annual leguminous herb (Æschynomene hispida), with sensitive foliage. -- Sensitive paper, paper prepared for photographic purpose by being rendered sensitive to the effect of light. -- Sensitive plant. (Bot.) (a) A leguminous plant (Mimosa pudica, or M. sensitiva, and other allied species), the leaves of which close at the slightest touch. (b) Any plant showing motions after irritation, as the sensitive brier (Schrankia) of the Southern States, two common American species of Cassia (C. nictitans, and C. Chamæcrista), a kind of sorrel (Oxalis sensitiva), etc.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

sensitive, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 (often foll. by to) very open to or acutely affected by external stimuli or mental impressions; having sensibility.
2 (of a person) easily offended or emotionally hurt.
3 (often foll. by to) (of an instrument etc.) responsive to or recording slight changes.
4 (often foll. by to) a (of photographic materials) prepared so as to respond (esp. rapidly) to the action of light. b (of any material) readily affected by or responsive to external action.
5 (of a topic etc.) subject to restriction of discussion to prevent embarrassment, ensure security, etc.
6 (of a market) liable to quick changes of price.
--n. a person who is sensitive (esp. to supposed occult influences).

Idiom

sensitive plant
1 a plant whose leaves curve downwards and leaflets fold together when touched, esp. mimosa.
2 a sensitive person.

Derivative

sensitively adv. sensitiveness n.

Etymology

ME, = sensory, f. OF sensitif -ive or med.L sensitivus, irreg. f. L sentire sens- feel

THESAURUS

sensitive

accurate, acute, adaptable, affected, agitable, algetic, allergic, anaphylactic, angry, appreciative, attuned, aware, bendable, bending, burning, censorious, chafed, choicy, choosy, cognizant, compliant, conscientious, conscious, critical, delicate, differential, discriminate, discriminating, discriminative, disposed, distinctive, distinguishing, ductile, edgy, elastic, emotionable, emotional, emotionally unstable, empathetic, empathic, eruptive, exact, exacting, excitable, explosive, exposed, extensible, extensile, fabricable, facile, fastidious, feeling, festering, fictile, fiery, fine, flexible, flexile, flexuous, formable, formative, galled, giving, goosy, high-mettled, high-spirited, high-strung, highly emotional, hot-tempered, hyperesthetic, hyperpathic, hypersensitive, impressed, impressible, impressionable, inclined, inflamed, inflammable, influenced, irascible, irritable, irritated, itchy, keen, knowing, like putty, limber, lissome, lithe, lithesome, malleable, meticulous, mettlesome, miffy, moldable, nervous, nice, obnoxious, open, overrefined, oversensible, oversensitive, overtender, particular, passible, perceiving, perceptive, perfectionistic, perturbable, petulant, picky, plastic, pliable, pliant, precarious, precise, precisianistic, predisposed, prickly, priggish, prone, prudish, punctilious, puristic, puritanic, quarrelsome, quick-tempered, rankling, raw, reactive, receptive, red, refined, responsive, scrupulous, seeing, selective, sensational, sensatory, sensible, sensile, sensimotor, sensorial, sensorimotor, sensory, sensual, sensuous, sentient, sequacious, shapable, sharp, skittish, smarting, soft, softhearted, sore, springy, startlish, strict, subject, submissive, subtle, supersensitive, supple, susceptible, susceptive, sympathetic, tactful, temperamental, tender, tenderhearted, tense, testy, tetchy, thin-skinned, ticklish, tingling, touchy, tractable, tractile, tricky, understanding, unstable, volatile, volcanic, vulnerable, warmhearted, whippy, willowy, yielding

ROGET THESAURUS

sensitive

Sensibility

N sensibility, sensibleness, sensitiveness, moral sensibility, impressibility, affectibility, susceptibleness, susceptibility, susceptivity, mobility, vivacity, vivaciousness, tenderness, softness, sentimental, sentimentality, sentimentalism, excitability, fastidiousness, physical sensibility, sore point, sore place, where the shoe pinches, sensible, sensitive, impressible, impressionable, susceptive, susceptible, alive to, impassionable, gushing, warm hearted, tender hearted, soft hearted, tender as a chicken, soft, sentimental, romantic, enthusiastic, highflying, spirited, mettlesome, vivacious, lively, expressive, mobile, tremblingly alive, excitable, oversensitive, without skin, thin-skinned, fastidious, sensibly, to the quick, to the inmost core, mens aequa in arduis, pour salt in the wound.

Physical Sensibility

N physical sensibility, sensibility, sensitiveness, physical sensibility, feeling, impressibility, perceptivity, aesthetics, moral sensibility, sensation, impression, consciousness, external senses, sensible, sensitive, sensuous, aesthetic, perceptive, sentient, conscious, acute, sharp, keen, vivid, lively, impressive, thin-skinned, to the quick, the touch'd needle trembles to the pole.