corrective

Etymology

Borrowed from French correctif.

adj

1. Of or pertaining to correction; serving to correct.
   As the currents were changing rapidly, the captain had to make many corrective course changes.
   Since the accident I've had to wear a corrective brace.
   Alway remember, that yf any other humour do abounde in the choleryke persone, as fleume, or melancolye, than vntyll that humour be expelled, the diete must be correctiue of that humour, and therfore more hotte and fyne, than the natural dyete before rehersed: 1539, Thomas Elyot, The Castel of Helth, London, Book 3, Chapter 16, p. 73
   The Justice that relates to Men, is either Universal, which gives us the Character of Good Men; or particular, and this is either Distributive or Corrective Justice. […] To corrective Justice belongs the punishment of Crimes. 1686, Richard Blome, “Moral Philosophy”, in The Gentlemans Recreation, London: for the author, page 30
   In the finished pieces of his youth, when he [John Milton] had a critical eye at every hour on every page, we find no want of corrective touches. 1795, Isaac D’Israeli, chapter 3, in An Essay on the Manners and Genius of Literary Character, London: T. Cadell, Junr. and W. Davies, page 18
   Florrie spoke angrily. “She hadn’t got nothing to say!” Miss Silver gave a slight corrective cough. “I noticed that she did not say anything.” 1953, Patricia Wentworth, chapter 23, in Vanishing Point, Philadelphia: Lippincott
2. (obsolete) Qualifying; limiting.
   The Psalmist interposeth a caution in this corrective particle, Yea, Happy. It hath the force of a revocation, whereby he seems to retract what went before, not simply and absolutely, but in a certain degree […] 1642, Richard Holdsworth, A Sermon Preached in St. Maries in Cambridge, Cambridge, page 27

noun

1. Something that corrects or counteracts something.
   alkalies are correctives of acids
   penalties are correctives of immoral conduct
   […] To make Courts hot ambitions wholesome, do not take A dramme of Countries dulnesse; do not adde Correctives, but as chymiques, purge the bad. c. 1598, John Donne, “To Sir Henry Wotton”, in Poems, London: John Marriot, published 1633, page 63
   1605, Francis Bacon, Of the proficience and aduancement of learning diuine, and humane in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon, London: Henrie Tomes, pp. 4b-5, If then such be the capacitie and receit of the mind of Man, it is manifest, that there is no daunger at all in the proportion or quantitie of knowledge howe large soeuer; least it should make it swell or outcompasse it selfe; no, but it is meerely the qualitie of knowledge, which be it in quantitie more or lesse, if it bee taken without the true correctiue thereof, hath in it some Nature of venome or malignitie, and some effects of that venome which is ventositie or swelling.
   The materials for the foreign settlements are far from being as perfect, or as much to be depended upon as we could wish; it was very seldom that I could venture to transcribe any thing directly from them without some addition or some corrective. 1757, William Burke, An Account of the European Settlements in America, London: R. and J. Dodsley, Volume 2, Preface
   If one had to choose among Wells’s own contemporaries a writer who could stand towards him as a corrective, one might choose Kipling, who was not deaf to the evil voices of power and military “glory.” 1941, George Orwell, “Wells, Hitler and the World State”, in Dickens, Dali and Others, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, published 1946, page 123
2. (obsolete) Limitation; restriction.
   What Correctives there may be supposed that may check and restrain that Increase of Mankind, that otherwise according to the ordinary course of Nature would have obtained in the World. 1677, Matthew Hale, chapter 7, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, London: William Shrowsbery, page 203
   It is a maxim established upon good reason, that every thing exceeding its just bounds, is hurtful to nature. The best of things are not excepted in this general rule. Even the necessary supports of life, if not qualified and made wholesome by this corrective, may prove the procurers of death. c. 1780, John Trusler, “Some observations upon drunkenness”, in An Easy Way to Prolong Life, London, page 28