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adj. 1. Not awake; asleep: "[He] lay dormant on the scruffy couch, his mouth open, reading glasses slumped on his swollen nostrils" (Steven Heighton). 2. Present but not active or manifest though capable of becoming so: "a harrowing experience which ... lay dormant but still menacing" (Charles Jackson). See Synonyms at inactive. 3. Temporarily inactive: a dormant volcano. 4. Being in a condition of biological rest or inactivity characterized by cessation of growth or development and the suspension of many metabolic processes: a dormant bud; a dormant bacterium. [Middle English, from Old French, from present participle of dormir, to sleep, from Latin dormīre.] dorman·cy n. |
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