Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Inquisitive \In*quis"i*tive\, a. [OE. inquisitif, F. inquisitif.]
-
Disposed to ask questions, especially in matters which do not concern the inquirer.
A wise man is not inquisitive about things impertinent.
--Broome. -
Given to examination, investigation, or research; searching; curious.
A young, inquisitive, and sprightly genius.
--I. Watts.Syn: Inquiring; prying; curious; meddling; intrusive.
Usage: 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.
--Milton.This folio of four pages [a newspaper], happy work! Which not even critics criticise; that holds Inquisitive attention, while I read.
--Cowper.Nor need we with a prying eye survey The distant skies, to find the Milky Way.
--Creech.
Inquisitive \In*quis"i*tive\, n.
A person who is inquisitive; one curious in research.
--Sir
W. Temple.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 14c., from Old French inquisitif, from Late Latin inquisitivus "making inquiry," from Latin inquisit-, past participle stem of inquirere (see inquire).An housbonde shal nat been Inquisityf of goddes pryuetee nor of his wyf. [Chaucer, "Miller's Prologue"]\nRelated: Inquisitively; inquisitiveness.
Wiktionary
a. 1 Eager to acquire knowledge. 2 Too curious; overly interested; nosy.
WordNet
adj. showing curiosity; "if someone saw a man climbing a light post they might get inquisitive"; "raised a speculative eyebrow" [syn: speculative, questioning, wondering(a)]
inquiring or appearing to inquire; "an inquiring look"; "the police are proverbially inquisitive"
Usage examples of "inquisitive".
And the wandering one, the inquisitive dreamer of dreams, The eternal asker of answers, stands in the street, And lifts his palms for the first cold ghost of rain.
The annual loss is computed, by a writer of an inquisitive but censorious temper, at upwards of eight hundred thousand pounds sterling.
Let us ask the astronomers who originate cosmogonical hypotheses, and invent a primitive nebula, the natural philosophers who dream that by the deterioration of energy and the dissipation of movement the material world will obtain final rest in the inertia of a homogeneous equilibrium, let us ask the biologists and psychologists who are enemies of fixed species and inquisitive about ancestral history.
I received no visitors, but I could not prevent the inquisitive from hovering round my door, and the more it became known that I saw no one, the more their curiosity increased.
When the boy was surrounded by inquisitive friends and Miss Fawcett stood alone gazing at the match, he took action and appeared suddenly and quietly at her side.
She was not accustomed to that inquisitive social gaucherie that Anglo-Saxon cultures mistake for admirable frankness.
Had Goldy Tancred known that Clyde Burke was an agent of The Shadow, he would have taken prompt action to eliminate the inquisitive reporter.
She thanked me for the ten sequins I had sent her, because, her mother having given them to her in the presence of several of the sisters, she was thus enabled to spend a little money without raising the suspicions of those curious and inquisitive nuns.
She told me that she had put some on her face to please her inquisitive friend, who was very fond of it.
We had nothing to fear from inquisitive eyes, for the boxes on each side of us were empty.
I went down to the ball-room again with my mask off, much to the astonishment of the inquisitive, who had made sure that the marquis was I.
He and Hidey had started college in high spirits, being inquisitive and often reckless.
I was obliged to tell the inquisitive Gama where I was living, and I hid nothing from Desarmoises, whose needs made him altogether dependent on me.
College Avenue and north on College to Central Avenue crossing the Cascadilla Creek, and downhill to West Avenue and to the suspension bridge above Fall Creek, eastward then to frozen Lake Beebe, along the icy-reedthick shore of Lake Beebe where at dawn juncos and chickadees pierced the air with their sharp, inquisitive cries and he recalled the wild birds at the feeders of High Point Farm, waking to those identical cries, the mysterious speech of birds mixed with his childhood sleep.
But it is curious that when one loves passionately one always feels inquisitive concerning the person of the beloved object.