INSTINCTIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does instinctive mean? 

• INSTINCTIVE (adjective)
  The adjective INSTINCTIVE has 1 sense:

1. unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct

  Familiarity information: INSTINCTIVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSTINCTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct

Synonyms:

instinctive; natural

Context example:

offering to help was as instinctive as breathing

Similar:

self-generated; spontaneous (happening or arising without apparent external cause)

 Context examples 

She always returned, with greater emphasis and with an instinctive knowledge of the strength of her objection, “Let us have no meandering.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They might be town-reared dogs, but the instinctive fear of the Wild was theirs just the same.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Mr. Morris, with instinctive delicacy, just laid a hand for a moment on his shoulder, and then walked quietly out of the room.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Oh, Walt!" was Madge's instinctive cry to her husband.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Scientists from Yale University report they managed to trigger instinctive hunting behavior in mice using optogenetics, a manner of priming cells within an organism's brain to switch on when exposed to a laser.

(Geneticists produce laser-activated killer mice, Wikinews)

She was not aware of it, however, any more than she was aware that her desire that Martin take a position was the instinctive and preparative impulse of motherhood.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She spoke from the instinctive wish of delaying shame; she spoke with a resolution which sprung from despair, for she spoke what she did not, could not believe herself.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The chin, with the damp black beard, pointed higher in the air as the back muscles stiffened and the chest swelled in an unconscious and instinctive effort to get more air.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Not a hint, however, did she drop about sending me to school: still I felt an instinctive certainty that she would not long endure me under the same roof with her; for her glance, now more than ever, when turned on me, expressed an insuperable and rooted aversion.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)