Sample sentences for PROGRESSIVE

2 meanings

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1 —as in:
progressive decline

Definition

gradually advancing or becoming more severe

It is a progressive disease.

progressive = gradually getting more severe

Other Uses (with this meaning)

The company has suffered a progressive decline in sales.

progressive = gradually more severe

Avoid bouncing and try a progressive stretch of the hamstring muscle.

progressive = advancing gradually

She has a progressive paralysis.

progressive = gradually becoming more severe

Motor activity impaired; general reduction of glandular functioning; accelerated loss of coordination; and strong indications of progressive amnesia.
Daniel Keyes -- Flowers for Algernon — Novel

progressive = gradually getting more severe

Aunty said ... that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year.
Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

progressively = increasingly

Alex becomes progressively lost to point where he must push canoe through reeds and drag it through mud.
Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild

progressively = increasingly

A few minutes later, someone noticed that the engines on one side were burning more fuel than those on the other, making one side progressively lighter.
Laura Hillenbrand -- Unbroken

progressively = increasingly

But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result.
Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

progressively = gradually

Having entered the Continuum, Alyss glanced back to see the wavering image of her mother growing progressively smaller among the brilliant, crystalline surfaces along which she and Hatter traveled.
Frank Beddor -- The Looking Glass Wars

progressively = gradually

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®Wikipedia - Progressivism Wikipedia - Progressive Era Wikipedia - Progressive Party Wikipedia - Progressive Education Wikipedia - Progressive Tense (grammar)Wikipedia - Progressive Rock (music)

2 —as in:
progressive ideas

Definition

favoring liberal political change; or a person with such beliefs

The school is known for its progressive views.

progressive = favoring liberal political change or ideas

Other Uses (with this meaning)

Progressives tend to favor the idea.

progressives = people who favor liberal political change or ideas

Conservative voters were concerned that the progressive candidate would implement radical, unproven ideas that would harm the very people the ideas were supposed to help.

progressive = favoring liberal political change or ideas

She has a politically progressive reputation.

progressive = favoring liberal political change or ideas

And in the general hardening of outlook that set in round about 1930, practices which had been long abandoned ... were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.
George Orwell -- 1984

progressive = favoring political change or new ideas (typically associated with liberal causes)

I felt no condemnation; yet the memory, static, unprogressive, haunted me.
H.G. Wells -- The War of the Worlds

(Editor's note: The prefix "un-" in unprogressive means not and reverses the meaning of progressive. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)

Even if he had been certain that all the progressives were fools like him, it would not have allayed his uneasiness.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- Crime and Punishment
Liberal progressives like him did not enjoy the singing and chanting.
Malala Yousafzai -- I Am Malala
But what becomes of the 'Reval program,' Lodovico, if your progressives meet with success?
Thomas Mann -- The Magic Mountain
And everyone in Afghanistan would be happy too, she said, once the antiprogressives, the backward bandits, were defeated.
Khaled Hosseini -- A Thousand Splendid Suns

(Editor's note: The prefix "anti-" in antiprogressives means against or opposite. This is the same pattern you see in words like antiviral, antiaircraft, and antisocial.)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Less commonly:

Progressive tax refers to a system of taxation in which the percent of income taxed increases with higher income. The terms, progressive education or progressive school are sometimes used to refer to more modern educational techniques such as stressing experience and self-expression over rote learning. In 1924, there was a political party in the United States called the Progressive Party. For other more specialized senses (including meanings related to eyeglass lenses, music, and grammar), see a comprehensive dictionary or Wikipedia.

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