Cū'mu-la-tive, a.
a. [It. cumulativo, Fr. cumulatif. See CUMULATE.]
Sense 1. Composed of parts in a heap; forming a mass; aggregated. “Knowledge . . . cumulative, not original.” Bacon.
Sense 2. Augmenting, gaining or giving force by successive additions; as, a cumulative argument, or one whose force increases as the statement proceeds.
The argument for all which, as Christians, we believe is in very truth not logical and single, but moral and cumulative. Trench.
Sense 3. (Law.) (a.) Tending to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered;—said of evidence. (b.) Given by the same testator to the same legatee;—said of a legacy. Bouvier. Wharton.