Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not active; inactive.
- Inoperative; not producing effects; having no efficacy.
- Marked by inaction; not utilized.
- To render inactive or incapable; incapacitate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective rare Inactive; listless.
- transitive verb obsolete To render inactive or listless.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
active ;inactive .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word unactive.
Examples
-
In Paradise Regained, Jesus, who has hitherto lived "private, unactive, calm, contemplative," emerges to be tested by temptation and so made ready for the "great work ... before him set."
Heroic Milton: Happy Birthday Kermode, Frank 2009
-
Till then, the idea in the mind of whatever is good is there only, like other ideas, the object of bare unactive speculation; but operates not on the will, nor sets us on work; the reason whereof I shall show by and by.
-
What association of ideas would ever operate, were that principle here totally unactive. 15
-
I.i.97 MENENIUS I'th'midst o'th'body, idle and unactive
On 'the' in maybe Shakespeare DC 2006
-
I.i.97 MENENIUS I'th'midst o'th'body, idle and unactive
Archive 2006-12-01 DC 2006
-
Where birth is respected, unactive, spiritless minds remain in haughty indolence, and dream of nothing but pedigrees and genealogies: the generous and ambitious seek honour and authority, and reputation and favour.
-
I begin to suspect We shall have an unactive Campaign -- that
-
Mirth, our Spirits wou'd grow by degrees so frothy and light, that we shou'd not easily bring them to settle again on any thing that was worthy our care: Without something now and then to raise them a little, they wou'd be dull and unactive, but _all_ Relaxation wou'd make them too airy, and of no sort of Use.
A Letter to A.H. Esq.; Concerning the Stage (1698) and The Occasional Paper No. IX (1698) Anonymous
-
Travellers such as Evelyn, who deplored the English gentry's "solitary and unactive lives in the country," the "haughty and boorish Englishman," and the
English Travellers of the Renaissance Clare Howard
-
Wou'd such unthinking unactive Mortals, subscribe to Societies, or lighten their Purses to establish Premiums, who tho 'they cou'd make themselves and their
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.