passive
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
passive/ˈpasɪv/
▶adjective
- 1 accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.
- 2 Grammar denoting a voice of verbs in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb (e.g. they were killed as opposed to he killed them). The opposite of active.
- 3 (of a circuit or device) containing no source of energy or electromotive force.
■ (of radar or a satellite) receiving or reflecting radiation rather than generating its own signal.
- 4 Chemistry unreactive because of a thin inert surface layer of oxide.
– derivatives
passively adverb,
passiveness noun,
passivity noun.
passively adverb,
passiveness noun,
passivity noun.
– origin ME: from L. passivus, from pass-, pati ‘suffer’.
'passive' also found in these Oxford entries:
active
- ballast
- be
- comprise
- deponent
- energumen
- equalizer
- get
- hapax legomenon
- Mameluke
- monolithic
- passive immunity
- passive resistance
- passive smoking
- passivize
- past participle
- PIR
- prolegomenon
- punk
- satyagraha
- semi-deponent
- spastic
- submissive
- victim
- voice
- xylem
- yin
