Here you go. From the dictionary. In order to get to what competitive actually means you have to go through a few permutations of the word and boil it down to compete. I have provided the entire path to discerning what competitive actually means. And he wasn't far off. Maybe you should check out a dictionary yourself :) Adjective[edit] competitive (comparative more competitive, superlative most competitive) (economics) capable of competing successfully of or pertaining to competition  [quotations ▼] (of someone's character) inclined to compete (biochemistry) inhibiting the action of an enzyme by binding with it (euphemistically, of prices) cheap, especially used of quality products competition (countable and uncountable, plural competitions) (uncountable) The action of competing.  [quotations ▼] The competition for this job is strong. (countable) A contest for a prize or award. The newspaper is featuring a competition to win a car. (uncountable, collectively) The competitors in such a contest. The new stain remover was ten times more effective than the competition. compete (third-person singular simple present competes, present participle competing, simple past and past participle competed) To contend emulously; to seek or strive for the same thing, position, or reward for which another is striving; to contend in rivalry, as for a prize or in business; as, tradesmen compete with one another.