CONVULSIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does convulsive mean? 

• CONVULSIVE (adjective)
  The adjective CONVULSIVE has 2 senses:

1. affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm

2. resembling a convulsion in being sudden and violent

  Familiarity information: CONVULSIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONVULSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm

Synonyms:

convulsive; spasmodic; spastic

Context example:

spastic movements

Similar:

unsteady (subject to change or variation)

Derivation:

convulse (contract involuntarily, as in a spasm)

convulse (cause to contract)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Resembling a convulsion in being sudden and violent

Context example:

convulsive laughter

Similar:

violent (acting with or marked by or resulting from great force or energy or emotional intensity)

Derivation:

convulse (be overcome with laughter)

convulse (make someone convulse with laughter)

 Context examples 

Seizing my pistol, I was rushing out, when my wife threw her arms round me and held me with convulsive strength.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As I spoke he gave my wrist a convulsive grip; the smile on his lips froze: apparently a spasm caught his breath.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Is it not possible,” I suggested, “that the incised wound upon Straker may have been caused by his own knife in the convulsive struggles which follow any brain injury?”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His bolt struck the stork just where its wing meets the body, and the bird whirled aloft in a last convulsive flutter before falling wounded and flapping to the earth.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He burst into convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"I knows him!" and, after a few convulsive efforts, the red legs took the shape of a pair of compasses, and the intelligent pupil triumphantly shouted, "It's a We, Dranpa, it's a We!"

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“Oh, how pleasant to be called Uriah, spontaneously!” he cried; and gave himself a jerk, like a convulsive fish.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

By convulsive efforts he got on his feet, staggered, and fell.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Classification is generally based upon motor manifestations of the seizure (e.g., convulsive, nonconvulsive, akinetic, atonic, etc.) or etiology (e.g., idiopathic, cryptogenic, and symptomatic). (From Mayo Clin Proc, 1996 Apr;71(4):405-14)

(Generalized Epilepsy, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

He sprang to it, and then paused, and laid his hand upon his heart; I could hear his teeth grate with the convulsive action of his jaws; and his face was so ghastly to see that I grew alarmed both for his life and reason.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)