cursive

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Having the successive letters joined together: cursive writing; a cursive style of type.
2. n. A cursive character or letter.
3. n. A manuscript written in cursive characters.
4. n. Printing A type style that imitates handwriting.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Running; flowing, as writing or manuscript in which the letters are joined one to another, and are formed rapidly without raising the pen, pencil, or stylus; specifically, in paleography, modified from the capital or uncial form, so as to assume a form analogous to that used in modern running hand: as, the cursive style; cursive letters; cursive manuscripts. Greek cursive writing is found in papyri dating back to about 160 b.c., at first very similar to the lapidary and uncial characters of the same period, but gradually becoming more rounded in form and negligent in style. The epithet cursive is, however, most frequently applied to the later cursive or minuscule writing from the ninth century on. (See minuscule.) The beginning of a Latin cursive character is seen in some waxed tablets discovered in 1875 in the house of L. Cæcilius Jucundus at Pompeii. Forms similar to these also occur in the dipinti and graffiti (characters painted on or incised in walls, earthenware, etc.) of the same place or period. The ancient Latin cursive character known to us in man uscripts from the fourth century on is, however, considerably different from this. In medieval manuscripts the cursive hand was employed from the Merovingian epoch, often in combination with the other contemporary styles; but from the ninth century it was replaced for all careful work by the so-called Caroline and Gothic characters, and continued in use up to the invention of printing only in degenerated form and for writings of small importance or hasty execution. (See manuscript.)
2. n. A cursive letter or character: as, a manuscript written in cursives.
3. n. A manuscript written in cursive characters.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Having successive letters joined together.
2. n. A cursive character, letter or font.
3. n. A manuscript written in cursive characters.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Running; flowing.
2. n. A character used in cursive writing.
3. n. A manuscript, especially of the New Testament, written in small, connected characters or in a running hand; -- opposed to uncial.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. having successive letter joined together
2. n. rapid handwriting in which letters are set down in full and are cursively connected within words without lifting the writing implement from the paper