Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Incentive

In·cen′tive (ĭn·sĕn′tĭv), a. [L. incentivus, from incinere to strike up or set the tune; pref. in- + canere to sing. See Enchant, Chant.]

1. Inciting; encouraging or moving; rousing to action; stimulative.

Competency is the most incentive to industry. Dr. H. More.

2. Serving to kindle or set on fire. [R.]

Part incentive reed Provide, pernicious with one touch of fire. Milton.

In·cen′tive, n. [L. incentivum.] That which moves or influences the mind, or operates on the passions; that which incites, or has a tendency to incite, to determination or action; that which prompts to good or ill; motive; spur; as, the love of money, and the desire of promotion, are two powerful incentives to action.

The greatest obstacles, the greatest terrors that come in their way, are so far from making them quit the work they had begun, that they rather prove incentives to them to go on in it. South.

Syn. — Motive; spur; stimulus; incitement; encouragement; inducement; influence.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.