PASSIVITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Passivity

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/pəsˈɪvɪti/ Listen

noun

Passivity n.

Passiveness; opposed to activity.

(Physics) The tendency of a body to remain in a given state, either of motion or rest, till disturbed by another body; inertia.

(Chem.) The quality or condition of any substance which has no inclination to chemical activity; inactivity.

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Etymology of 'Passivity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Passivity" Quotes from Famous Books

... been refreshed by his long rest, and with his habitual impatience of mere passivity, he was eager to begin the new day and subdue sadness by his strong will and strong arm. The white mist lay in the valley; it was going to be a bright warm day, and he would start to work again when he had had ...

— Adam Bede • George Eliot

... particularly remember one thin, tall fellow, a cabinet-maker, as I found out later, with an emaciated face and a curly head, black as though grimed with soot. He was not drunk, but in contrast to the gloomy passivity of the crowd seemed beside himself with excitement. He kept addressing the people, though I don't remember his words; nothing coherent that he said was longer than "I say, lads, what do you say to this? Are things to go on like this?" and so ...

— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... effort to exploit the situation to the mutual advantage of English and German. Alone Sir Reginald MacKenna, the chairman of the London City and Midland Bank, in a remarkable speech to the shareholders and directors indicated our astonishing passivity. The war has brought Germany low, and the lower she goes the more dangerous she is to the rest of us. But no one will face it. If we did resolve to face it we should find many Germans ready to co-operate and give help in exchange ...

— Europe--Whither Bound? - Being Letters of Travel from the Capitals of Europe in the Year 1921 • Stephen Graham

... mere passivity. It is more than simply a revelation of Divine suffering, of the eternal patience of the love of GOD. It is the expression of GOD in action: a deed of Divine self- sacrifice: a voluntary taking upon Himself by man's Eternal Lover of the burden of man's misery and sin. There is a profound ...

— Religious Reality • A.E.J. Rawlinson

... entire household was designing to show her every kind of insult and annoyance, she would see plots where no plots were, and consider that her most dignified course was to suffer in silence—an attitude of passivity as regards winning AFfection which of course led to DISaffection. Moreover, she was so totally lacking in that faculty of "apprehension" to which I have already referred as being highly developed in our household, and all her customs ...

— Youth • Leo Tolstoy

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