Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COM-PAR'A-TIVE, a. [L. comparativus; It. comparativo; Fr. comparatif. See Compare.]

1. Estimated by comparison; not positive or absolute. The comparative weight of a body, is that which is estimated by comparing it with the weight of another body. A body may be called heavy, when compared with a feather, which would be called light, when compared with iron. So of comparative good or evil.
2. Having the power of comparing different things; as, a comparative faculty. Qu. – Glanville.
3. In grammar, expressing more or less. The comparative degree of an adjective expresses a greater or less degree of a quantity, or quality, than the positive; as, brighter, or more bright; smaller; finer; stronger; weaker. Comparative anatomy, that branch of anatomy which treats of the anatomy of other animals than man, with a view to compare their structure with that of human beings, and thus to illustrate the animal functions, and particularly with reference to a more perfect knowledge of the functions of several parts of the human body. Encyc.