Distributive is an adjective describing the dispensing or doling out of things. In the winter during cold season, a teacher becomes a distributive source of facial tissue for all the students.
The word distributive may come from the late Latin distributivus, which means "divided up." Distributive has another meaning, which concerns the sales of goods to companies or consumers. For example, if stores run out of pink sweaters for a month while more pink sweaters sit idle in warehouses, the pink sweater industry probably has a distributive problem.
