Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a prohibitive manner; with prohibition; so as to prohibit: as, prices were prohibitively high.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a prohibitive manner.
  • adverb To a prohibitive extent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb to a prohibitive degree

Etymologies

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Examples

  • I agree entry costs are high, but I disagree that they will remain prohibitively so for much longer.

    Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost? A Freakonomics Quorum - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • But even when I was a struggling Waldenbooks employee making $18,000 a year in prohibitively-expensive Connecticut, every six months or so I set aside a goodly amount on my credit cards to luxuriate.

    An Ode To Elegance, Or: The Best Meal I Think I Ever Had 2004

  • Police, noted that if every officer involved in an SIU investigation had a different lawyer it would become "prohibitively" expensive.

    MISSISSAUGA - Home 2010

  • The researchers pointed out that solutions did not necessarily have to be "prohibitively" expensive.

    Engineering News | Home Creamer Media Reporter 2009

  • Trying to get patent protection worldwide at the beginning is prohibitively expensive, so pick your geographies and timing carefully and strategically.

    Marty Zwilling: Entrepreneurs Need to Think Globally at the Start Marty Zwilling 2011

  • Trying to get patent protection worldwide at the beginning is prohibitively expensive, so pick your geographies and timing carefully and strategically.

    Marty Zwilling: Entrepreneurs Need to Think Globally at the Start Marty Zwilling 2011

  • Faced with prohibitively high borrowing costs and unable to return to financial markets, the Greek government is now asking for another €60 billion aid package to cover its needs over the next two years when money from the existing loan deal runs out.

    Greek Politicians Fail to Forge Deal Alkman Granitsas 2011

  • Better access and increased trade with the far-flung corners of the British Empire brought in gemstones and precious metals that had previously had been rare and prohibitively expensive, such as diamonds from South Africa, opals and gold from Australia and silver from new mines in the U.S. The rise of a new middle class also meant that men could afford to purchase the jewelry that a fashionable woman of the time liked to wear.

    The Victorian Evangelist Selina Williams 2011

  • First, a caveat: These are by no means cheap wines, but they aren't prohibitively expensive either, sitting in the €12-€20 bracket, which places them as special-occasion wines or something decent to age in the cellar.

    The Hunt for Nebbiolo Will Lyons 2011

  • He may even be required to pay a prohibitively high “minimum bid”—a practice that ultimately engendered a lot of grumbling among certain advertisers.

    In the Plex Steven Levy 2011

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