Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not having the qualities associated with active, living organisms.
  • adjective Not animated or energetic; dull.
  • adjective Grammar Belonging to the class of nouns that stand for nonliving things.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To infuse life or vigor into; animate; quicken.
  • In grammar, denoting inanimate things: applied to a phase of ‘gender’ distinction.
  • Not animate; having lost life or vital force: as, the inanimate body of a man.
  • Not animated; without vivacity or briskness; spiritless; inactive; sluggish; dull: as, inanimate movements; inanimate conversation.
  • Synonyms Dead, lifeless, inert, soulless, spiritless.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To animate.
  • adjective Not animate; destitute of life or spirit; lifeless; dead; inactive; dull.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lacking the quality or ability of motion; as an inanimate object.
  • adjective Not being, and never having been alive.
  • adjective grammar Not animate.
  • noun Something that is not alive.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective belonging to the class of nouns denoting nonliving things
  • adjective not endowed with life
  • adjective appearing dead; not breathing or having no perceptible pulse

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

in- +‎ animate

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Examples

  • Take the terms inanimate, man, white: then take some white things of which man is not predicated-swan and snow: the term inanimate is predicated of all of the one, of none of the other.

    Prior Analytics Aristotle 2002

  • Take the terms inanimate, man, white: then take some white things of which man is not predicated-swan and snow: the term inanimate is predicated of all of the one, of none of the other.

    PRIOR ANALYTICS Aristotle 1989

  • He was somewhat of the same temperament as Emmeline -- a dreamer, with a mind tuned to receive and record the fine rays that fill this world flowing from intellect to intellect, and even from what we call inanimate things.

    The Blue Lagoon: a romance 1907

  • Thus, at the lowest end of the scale, we have what we call inanimate matter, which Aristotle thinks of much as we do, namely, as something occupying space, the different parts of it being endowed with different powers of movement, and with different properties, such as warmth or coldness, wetness or dryness.

    Progress and History Francis Sydney Marvin 1903

  • It is matter set free; one might say that this eternal slave is wreaking its vengeance; it would seem as though the evil in what we call inanimate objects had found vent and suddenly burst forth; it has the air of having lost its patience, and of taking a mysterious, dull revenge; nothing is so inexorable as the rage of the inanimate.

    Great Sea Stories Various 1897

  • "Why do you say 'what we call inanimate matter'?" inquired Paul.

    Paul Patoff 1881

  • Whether the supernatural Powers are conceived of as animals or as plants or as what we call inanimate things, or, in more advanced thought, as ghosts or spirits or gods, they are held to be factors in human life, are regarded with awe, are dreaded and avoided, or are welcomed as helpers, and in any case are propitiated by gifts and other marks of respect.

    Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV Crawford Howell Toy 1877

  • [19] Beasts, plants, and what we call inanimate objects, also are held, in early stages of civilization, to have souls -- a natural inference from the belief that these last are alive and that all things have a nature like that of man.

    Introduction to the History of Religions Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV Crawford Howell Toy 1877

  • If even in what we call inanimate things there lies a healing power in various kinds; if, as is not absurd, there may lie in the world absolute cure existing in analysis, that is parted into a thousand kinds and forms, who can tell what cure may lie in a perfect body, informed, yea, caused, by a perfect spirit?

    Miracles of Our Lord George MacDonald 1864

  • It was as if the relation between me and my fellow-men was more and more deadened, and my relation to what we call the inanimate was quickened into new life.

    The Lifted Veil George Eliot 1849

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