inactiveadj.n.

1641 T. Aston Remonstr. against Presbitery sig. M 2^v How inactive in respect of Spirit, these annuall temporary Officers must needs be.

1659 S. Lee Orbis Miraculum (new ed.) ix. 170 The operation of its vigorous Essence upon the dull and inactive matter of the body.

1725 A. Pope tr. R. Le Bossu Gen. View Epic Poem in tr. Homer Odyssey I. p. ix Led away by the seeming Charms of an idle and inactive life [Fr. une vie oiseuse & sans action].

1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine She has become heavy and inactive upon the sea, so as to yield without resistance to the efforts of every wave rushing over her decks.

1804 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. III. 267 The title to a barony, which..is vested in coheirs, remains in them in an inactive and dormant state.

1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. 206 This Alexandrian period, so inactive and barren.

1883 Manch. Examiner 13 Dec. 4/1 The money market to-day was very inactive.

1903 N.Y. Times 11 Nov. 12/4 The difficulties under which the odd-lotter labors in dealing in stocks as inactive as Pacific Mail.

1942 A. T. Weaver Speech Forms & Princ. x. 243 A dull or inactive mind which fails to see distinctions in the meanings of the language which is being spoken.

2017 Irish Daily Mail (Nexis) 2 Mar. 3 If people were both overweight and inactive, they were a third more likely to suffer a ‘cardiovascular event’.

1748 W. Shepheard Serm. Several Subj. iii. 110 Those Champions were not so inactive in the Cause of Christ, as is insinuated; they did all, that could be done in their Circumstances.

1794 St. James's Chron. 4–6 Nov. The Prisoner..was not an inactive Member [of the Constitutional Society]... In this case he is a principal, acting a good deal from the spirit of intrigue and duplicity.

1839 Standard 9 May From the people generally inactive in politics, the right honourable baronet has earned for himself, not merely a fair, but a favourable trial.

1893 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 105 275 The patient..is sexually inactive; not living with his wife.

1935 Princeton Alumni Weekly 1 Mar. 450/2 He had been inactive in business during the last year because of ill health.

1975 P. M. Sniderman Personality & Democratic Politics vii. 281 Those who participate tend to have stronger emotional attachments to the party..than do those who are inactive in politics.

1998 Chicago Tribune 14 Sept. iii. 7/2 Tight end John Allred and wide receiver Marcus Robinson..were inactive for Sunday's game.

2016 National Post (Canada) (Nexis) 7 May (Issues & Ideas section) a19 The primaries show that he has attracted very large numbers of generally politically inactive voters.

1665 E. Bolnest Medicina Instaurata 144 Herein then is the excellency of Chymical Medicines, above Galenical, Chymistry being able to exalt the most dull, and inactive of Medicines, to the greatest of subtility.

1735 B. Langrish Mod. Theory & Pract. Physic i. 28 The Salts of most Vegetables are of a fixed Nature, and acescent; and thence, when received into the blood, remain inactive and quiet.

1779 H. Wastell Observ. Efficacy New Mercurial Prep. v. 43 The only method to be depended on, is to render the poison inactive, by immediately burning the part.

1836 M. Faraday in Philos. Mag. 9 57 Iron wire, as M. Schoenbein has stated, when put alone into strong nitric acid, either wholly or partly immersed, acquires the peculiar inactive state.

1849 H. Watts tr. L. Gmelin Hand-bk. Chem. II. 34 The greater the density of the inactive gas, the smaller is the quantity which suffices to stop the combustion.

1852 Q. Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 4 142 All the slow oxidations are preceded by a transformation of common or inactive oxygen into ozonized or active oxygen.

1877 Pharmaceut. Jrnl. 2 June 979/2 As a medicinal agent it [sc. cinnabar] has always been found to be inactive and useless.

1941 W. H. Eddy & G. Dalldorf Avitaminoses (ed. 2) i. 7 A further characteristic of certain vitamins is that they occur in natural sources in a physiologically inactive form (pro-vitamins) and become active only after conversion within the animal.

1994 D. J. Howell Ecol. for Environm. Professionals viii. 92 More than a quarter of bedrock is silicon, relatively inactive in biological terms.

2009 J. C. Dabrowiak Metals in Med. ii. 49 Addition of the drug to the protein could result in displacement of the natural metal ion, causing the enzyme to be catalytically inactive.

1673 E. Maynwaring Hist. & Myst. Venereal Lues viii. 88 Venereal Contagion that is more calm, sluggish, and inactive, gives leave to deliberate and to make choice of the fittest season and conveniencies for Cure.

1751 G. Cleghorn Observ. Epidemical Dis. Minorca ii. 122 As soon as the Winter begins (their [sc. tertian fevers] Contagion being rendered inactive by the Cold) few of those who have hitherto escaped are infected.

1768 W. Alexander Exper. Ess. i. 56 We may conclude, that the destroying of these putrid miasmata, or rendering them inactive, is owing at least to more causes than that of mere cold.

1830 Morning Post 17 May It was supposed the cat must have been in a rabid state at the time she bit him, and that the virus has remained inactive for the great length of time that has intervened.

1891 Med. News 10 Jan. 48/2 In some cases suspension may aid in relieving pressure and preventing deformity, while in others, in which the disease is inactive, a disturbance of latent or encapsulated tubercles may be caused.

1955 Lima (Ohio) News 20 Jan. 9/1 If the young man's disease remains inactive neither you nor possible children would become infected with tuberculosis from him.

2015 H. Narayan Compend. Antenatal Care High-risk Pregnancies 499/2 The virus remains inactive in the body for life but can become reactivated during pregnancy.

1848 London Jrnl. Arts, Sci., & Manuf. 33 366 Do these latter [optically active acids] arise from a chemical decomposition, which takes place between the elements of the inactive acid? or were they pre-existant [sic] and crystallized together, presenting the appearance of a single and definite body?

1878 D. A. Wells Sugar Industry U.S. 107 Laevo glucose, dextro glucose, and inactive glucose behave in the same manner towards chemical re-agents.

1961 L. F. Fieser & M. Fieser Adv. Org. Chem. iii. 83 Properties of the two active and two inactive forms of tartaric acid are given in Table 3.2.

2006 E. V. Anslyn & D. A. Dougherty Mod. Physical Org. Chem. vi. 300 It is important to distinguish between a sample that is optically inactive because it contains a racemic mixture and a sample that is optically inactive because it contains achiral molecules.