ATTENTIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does attentive mean? 

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

1. (often followed by 'to') giving care or attention

2. taking heed; giving close and thoughtful attention

  Familiarity information: ATTENTIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ATTENTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(often followed by 'to') giving care or attention

Context example:

an attentive suitor

Similar:

absorbed; captive; engrossed; enwrapped; intent; wrapped (giving or marked by complete attention to)

advertent; heedful (giving attention)

observant (paying close attention especially to details)

oversolicitous (excessively solicitous)

solicitous (showing hovering attentiveness)

Also:

concerned (feeling or showing worry or solicitude)

Attribute:

attention (a motionless erect stance with arms at the sides and feet together; assumed by military personnel during drill or review)

Antonym:

inattentive (showing a lack of attention or care)

Derivation:

attend (give heed (to))

attentiveness (paying particular notice (as to children or helpless people))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Taking heed; giving close and thoughtful attention

Synonyms:

attentive; heedful; paying attention; thoughtful

Context example:

heedful of what they were doing

Attribute:

attentiveness; heed; paying attention; regard (paying particular notice (as to children or helpless people))

Derivation:

attend (give heed (to))

attentiveness (the trait of being observant and paying attention)

 Context examples 

Who so cheerful, so attentive, so attached to him?

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mrs. Steerforth was particularly happy in her son's society, and Steerforth was, on this occasion, particularly attentive and respectful to her.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Whatever effect Sir Thomas's little harangue might really produce on Mr. Crawford, it raised some awkward sensations in two of the others, two of his most attentive listeners—Miss Crawford and Fanny.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Did you find your scholars as attentive as you expected?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He had called in Camden Place; had called a second time, a third; had been pointedly attentive.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The attitude of the greater part of the public might be described as one of attentive neutrality.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Staffers who report to you might not get along with each other, or a project may go off the rails, so be attentive.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

His behaviour was attentive and kind to the utmost.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Has not my consent been daily asked by his looks, his manner, his attentive and affectionate respect?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He knew that I could not have a more kind and attentive nurse than himself; and, firm in the hope he felt of my recovery, he did not doubt that, instead of doing harm, he performed the kindest action that he could towards them.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)