Emily Dickinson Lexicon

POS'I-TIVE, a. [It. positivo; Fr. positif; Low L. positivus.]

1. Properly, set; laid down; expressed; direct; explicit; opposed to implied; as, he told us in positive words; we have his positive declaration to the fact; the testimony is positive.
2. Absolute; express; not admitting any condition or discretion. The commands of the admiral are positive.
3. Absolute; real; existing in fact; opposed to negative, as positive good, which exists by itself, whereas negative good is merely the absence of evil; or opposed to relative or arbitrary, as beauty is not a positive thing, but depends on the different tastes of people. – Locke. Encyc.
4. Direct; express; opposed to circumstantial; as, positive proof. – Blackstone.
5. Confident; fully assured; applied to persons. The witness is very positive that he is correct in his testimony.
6. Dogmatic; over-confident in opinion or assertion. Some positive persisting fops we know, / That, if once wrong, will needs be always so. – Pope.
7. Settled by arbitrary appointment; opposed to natural or inbred. In laws, that which is natural, bindeth universally; that which is positive, not so. – Hooker. Although no laws but positive are mutable, yet all are not mutable which are positive. – Hooker.
8. Having power to act directly; as, a positive voice in legislation. – Swift. Positive degree, in grammar, is the state of an adjective which denotes simple or absolute quality, without comparison or relation to increase or diminution; as, wise, noble. Positive electricity, according to Dr. Franklin, consists in a superabundance of the fluid in a substance. Others suppose it to consist in a tendency of the fluid outward. It is not certain in what consists the difference between positive and negative electricity. Positive electricity being produced by rubbing glass, is called the vitreous; negative electricity, produced by rubbing amber or resin, is called the resinous. – Encyc.