INQUISITIVE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Inquisitive

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/ɪnkwˈɪzɪtɪv/ Listen

adjective

Inquisitive adj.

Disposed to ask questions, especially in matters which do not concern the inquirer. "A wise man is not inquisitive about things impertinent."

Given to examination, investigation, or research; searching; curious. "A young, inquisitive, and sprightly genius."

Synonyms: Inquiring; prying; curious; meddling; intrusive. Inquisitive, Curious, Prying. Curious denotes a feeling, and inquisitive a habit. We are curious when we desire to learn something new; we are inquisitive when we set ourselves to gain it by inquiry or research. Prying implies inquisitiveness, and is more commonly used in a bad sense, as indicating a desire to penetrate into the secrets of others. "(We) curious are to hear, What happens new." "This folio of four pages (a newspaper), happy work! Which not even critics criticise; that holds Inquisitive attention, while I read." "Nor need we with a prying eye survey The distant skies, to find the Milky Way."

noun

Inquisitive n. A person who is inquisitive; one curious in research.

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Etymology of 'Inquisitive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inquisitive" Quotes from Famous Books

... two others, inquisitive and gaping, joined the spokeswoman, who, as the princess ...

— The Title Market • Emily Post

... gifted with the heavenly knowledge of faith [says the Catechism of the Council of Trent] is free from an inquisitive curiosity; for when God commands us to believe, he does not propose to have us search into his divine judgments, nor to inquire their reasons and causes, but demands an immutable faith. . . . Faith, therefore, excludes not only all ...

— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith

... tripped eagerly, yet wearily, to his accustomed stall, and a swarthy Mexican unloosed at once the cincha and removed the horsehair bridle. Thus Sancho and the engineer were left by themselves, though inquisitive ranch folk sauntered to the gateway and peered after them into the corral. Over at the little clump of willows Blake's men were throwing their carbines across their shoulders and dismounting as they reached the old familiar spot, ...

— A Wounded Name • Charles King

... acquaintance with the affairs of the mountain, and of the Druses, which his residence of upwards of twelve years, and a sound understanding, have enabled him to acquire, renders his conversation very instructive to the inquisitive traveller. ...

— Travels in Syria and the Holy Land • John Burckhardt

... that he had frequently heard you mention the cow-pox as a disease endemial to Gloucestershire, and that if a person were ever affected by it, you supposed him afterwards secure from the smallpox. This excited my curiosity, and when I visited Gloucestershire I was very inquisitive concerning the subject, and from the information I have since received, both from your publication and from conversation with medical men of the greatest accuracy in their observations, I am fully convinced that what the men supposed to be cow-pox was ...

— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various

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