impulsive

Having the power of driving or impelling; giving an impulse; moving; impellent.

Adjective

  1. Having the power of driving or impelling; giving an impulse; moving; impellent.
    • Poor men! poor papers! We and they / Do some impulsive force obey. - 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC:
  2. Actuated by impulse or by transient feelings; inclined to make rapid decisions without due consideration.
    • my heart, impulsive and wayward - 1847 November 1, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie, Boston, Mass.: William D. Ticknor & Company, →OCLC, (please specify either |part=I or II):
    • Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United...

    Synonyms: hasty precipitant rash

  3. Of a force, acting momentarily, or by impulse; not continuous.

Origin

Borrowed from Middle French impulsif, from Latin impulsivus.

Forms

more impulsive most impulsive

Related

impulse impulsion impulsively impulsiveness impulsor impulsory

Derived

impulsive speech impulsivity nonimpulsive unimpulsive

Noun

  1. That which impels or gives an impulse; an impelling agent.
    • Notwithstanding all which Motives and impulsives , Sir Thomas Overbury refused to be sent abroad , with such terms - 1613, Henry Wotton, letter to Edmund Bacon:
  2. One whose behaviour or personality is characterized by being impulsive.

Forms

impulsives