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adj. 1. Not active or tending to be active: inactive students at risk for gaining weight. 2. a. Not functioning or operating; out of use: inactive machinery. b. Not being in continuous use or operation: an inactive brokerage account. 3. Retired from duty or service: inactive military personnel. 4. Chemistry Not readily participating in chemical reactions; inert. 5. Medicine Marked by the absence or lessening of disease activity. 6. Physics Showing no optical activity in polarized light. in·active·ly adv. in′ac·tivi·ty, in·active·ness n. Synonyms: inactive, idle, inert, dormant, latent, quiescent These adjectives mean not involved in or disposed to movement or activity. Inactive indicates absence of activity: retired but not inactive; an inactive factory. Idle refers to persons who are not doing anything or are not busy: employees who were idle because of the strike. It also refers to what is not in use or operation: idle machinery. Inert describes things powerless to move themselves or to produce a desired effect; applied to persons, it implies lethargy or sluggishness, especially of mind or spirit: "The Honorable Mrs. Jamieson ... was fat and inert, and very much at the mercy of her old servants" (Elizabeth C. Gaskell). Dormant refers to a state of suspended activity but often implies the possibility of renewal: dormant feelings of affection. What is latent is present but not evident: latent ability. Quiescent sometimes—but not always—suggests temporary inactivity: "For a time, he [the whale] lay quiescent" (Herman Melville). |
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