causing privation; depriving.-consisting in the absence of something; not positive; negative.-implying privation or negation; giving a negative force to a word; as, alpha privative; privative particles; -- applied to such prefixes and suffixes as a- (gr. /), un-, non-, -less.-that of which the essence is the absence of something.-a term indicating the absence of any quality which might be naturally or rationally expected; -- called also privative term.-a privative prefix or suffix. see privative, a., 3.