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Definition of passive :
1. Designating certain morbid conditions, as hemorrhage or dropsy, characterized by relaxation of the vessels and tissues, with deficient vitality and lack of reaction in the affected tissues.
2. Inactive; inert; not showing strong affinity; as, red phosphorus is comparatively passive.
3. Not active, but acted upon; suffering or receiving impressions or influences; as, they were passive spectators, not actors in the scene.
4. Receiving or enduring without either active sympathy or active resistance; without emotion or excitement; patient; not opposing; unresisting; as, passive obedience; passive submission.
Synonyms:
supine, patient, peaceable, influenced, receptive, quiet, resistless, forbearing, nonresistant, nonviolent, unresisting, resigned, latent, peaceful, affected, resist, passive voice, nonoperational, enduring
indifferent (part of speech: adjective)
impartial, uninterested, cold, insouciant, lukewarm, easygoing, unwilling, half-hearted, uncaring, neutral, perfunctory, disinterested
insensitive (part of speech: adjective)
callous, hardhearted, hardened, indifferent, hard, stony, dispassionate, insensitive, heartless, objective, uncompassionate, detached, unfeeling, ruthless, aloof, numb, cold-blooded, unsympathetic, passionless, cool, blunt, anesthetized, tough, unconcerned, nonchalant, unemotional, emotionless, apathetic, hard-boiled
passive (part of speech: adjective)
idle, acquiescent, placid, inactive, inert, submissive, calm, complaisant, yielding
inert (part of speech: adjective)
lifeless, vegetative, sedentary, motionless, static, insensible, catatonic, paralytic, languid, comatose, reposing, immobile, languorous, dormant, stagnant, stationary, still, inanimate, sluggish, listless, lethargic
Usage examples:
- The Duke had simply been passive and obedient. - "The Duke's Children", Anthony Trollope.
- We felt, not without good reason, that if Mr. Royson were compelled to return home you would be converted from a passive into an active enemy. - "The Wheel O' Fortune", Louis Tracy.
- 8. " The passive verb will always be of the person and number that the verb be is, of which it is in part composed." - "The Grammar of English Grammars", Goold Brown.