recreative

1. not comparableBeing, or pertaining to, recreation.

   Tribute acts, by contrast, are purely recreative.

   2007 January 13, Allan Kozinn, “Interpreting the Beatles Without Copying”, in New York Times

   1 more example

   Between the two extremes of college men the unsocial dig and the flunking swell, lies the majority, who, acknowledging the duty and merit of hard work, see the value in social and recreative line, but are at somewhat of a loss, seemingly, how to proportionize the time given to the different sides of college life, or how far to allow themselves to go on the more attractive side.

   1892, Occident - Volume 22, page 36

2. not comparableCreating anew.

   recreative power

plural recreatives

1. obsoleterareA recreative thing or activity.

   For, theſe are onely Cynthias recreatiues / Made vnto Phœbus, and are feminine; […]

   1615, Samuel Daniel, “The Prologue”, in Hymens Triumph. A Pastorall Tragicomædie. […], London: […] [John Legate] for Francis Constable, […], →OCLC, signature ¶3, recto

   2 more examples

   And in this kinde I knovv fevv recreatiues that poſſeſſe vs more, then the humour of building, in reſpectthey both ſatisfie our ovvne preſent inuention, and ſerue to our poſteritie, as perpetuall remembrances, and memorials of their progenitors, […]

   1620, “A Discourse of Rome”, in Horæ Subseciuæ. Observations and Discourses., London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Edward Blount, […], →OCLC, page 382

   Among the most delightful of mental recreatives may be classed the exhilarating pleasures of intellectual intercourse; they constitute the very life-fluid of our social being.

   1853, an Epicure [pseudonym; Frederick Saunders], “The Talkative and the Taciturn”, in Salad for the Solitary, New York, N.Y.: Lamport, Blakeman & Law, […], →OCLC, page 44