from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Distributive \Dis*trib"u*tive\, a. [Cf. F. distributif.]
1. Tending to distribute; serving to divide and assign in
portions; dealing to each his proper share. "Distributive
justice." --Swift.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Logic) Assigning the species of a general term.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Gram.) Expressing separation; denoting a taking singly,
not collectively; as, a distributive adjective or pronoun,
such as each, either, every; a distributive numeral, as
(Latin) bini (two by two).
[1913 Webster]
{Distributive operation} (Math.), any operation which either
consists of two or more parts, or works upon two or more
things, and which is such that the result of the total
operation is the same as the aggregated result of the two
or more partial operations. Ordinary multiplication is
distributive, since a [times] (b + c) = ab + ac, and (a +
b) [times] c = ac + bc.
{Distributive proportion}. (Math.) See {Fellowship}.
[1913 Webster]