non-resistantadj.n.
/ˌnɒnrᵻˈzɪst(ə)nt/, U.S. /ˌnɑnrəˈzɪst(ə)nt/, /ˌnɑnriˈzɪst(ə)nt/ A. adj.
1. With reference to a person: offering no resistance; compliant; spec. relating to, involving, or advocating the doctrine or principle of non-resistance.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > obedience > submissiveness > submission > [adjective] > non-resisting > relating to doctrine
non-resistant1702
the mind > will > wish or inclination > [adjective] > favourably
bethoughta1250
fainc1275
agreeable1448
inclinablec1449
favourablec1460
inclined1561
hospitable1655
non-resistant1796
society > authority > subjection > obedience > submissiveness > submission > [adjective] > non-resisting
non-resisting1701
non-resistant1796
non-resistance1805
passivist1919
1702 D. Defoe New Test Church Eng. Loyalty 20 This Doctrine of Absolute, Passive, and Non-resistant Obedience.
1796 S. T. Coleridge Lett. (1895) 201 It commands them never to use the arm of flesh, to be perfectly non-resistant.
1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. xxxi. 272 We, so utterly helpless, hampered, and non-resistant, must await the inevitable action of the ice.
1923 Amer. Hist. Rev. 28 756 A miracle..that they were not ground to pieces between the conflicting elements, as were so many of the non-resistant groups contemporaneously in other American colonies.
1996 Jrnl. Amer. Hist. 83 88 In a society with a mixture of aggressive and ‘non-resistant’ types, the aggressive would win out.
2. Not resistant to pressure, abrasion, or similar physical phenomena.
ΚΠ
1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. & Morbid Anat. (ed. 2) 165 The tissue..being soft and non-resistant.
1882 Science 14 Jan. 12/1 The idea of establishing the lubricating, non-resistant or mobile element integrally in the bearings themselves.
1964 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 262 436 Downwasting of both resistant and nonresistant rocks to a common level under humid temperate climatic conditions.
1997 Jrnl. Geophysical Res. 102 20749/2 The 15 km length of the Atigun River through Atigun Gorge is marked by deep erosion along a zone of..relatively nonresistant rocks.
3. Biology and Medicine.
a. Not resistant to a disease, pathogen, or pest.
ΚΠ
1907 Science 25 Oct. 542/1 Strains of red clover resistant to anthracnose (a disease which..makes it impossible to grow ordinary non-resistant clover).
1918 A. W. McCann This Famishing World c. 316 It [sc. milk] is also a perfect food for the micro-organisms that spread tuberculosis, diphtheria,..and many other diseases that afflict the human race already devitalised and non-resistant through its morbid consumption of refined starches and sugars.
1946 A. Nelson Princ. Agric. Bot. xxv. 480 With fruit trees a ‘scion’ resistant to a shoot disease may be grafted on to an otherwise non-resistant tree.
1995 Amer. Jrnl. Tropical Med. & Hygiene 52 539 Resistant hosts were characterized by fewer plasma cells in the infiltrate than were observed for non-resistant hosts.
b. Not resistant to a specific treatment, antibiotic, pesticide, etc.
ΚΠ
1922 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 94 143 The degree of lysis (almost complete) was the same in a number of the dilutions, which is never seen with an ordinary non-resistant strain.
1936 E. C. McCulloch Disinfection & Sterilization v. 105 Baking and roasting..do not furnish sufficient heat to the interior of the baked or roasted food to destroy even such non-resistant organisms as E. typhi.
1986 Jrnl. Med. Entomol. 23 298 Seven nonresistant (‘normal’) strains of the German cockroach..were evaluated to determine their relative susceptibilities to chlordane.
1999 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 156 990 This meta-analysis confirms that clozapine is more effective than conventional neuroleptics in reducing symptoms of patients with both treatment-resistant and nonresistant schizophrenia.
2003 Clin. Infectious Dis. 36 (Suppl. 1) S4 It is important to recognize that [drug] resistance also affects the treatment of individuals with nonresistant organisms.
B. n.
A person who does not resist authority or force (occasionally: = non-combatant n.); spec. an advocate or follower of non-resistance.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by type of service > [noun] > non-combatant
non-combatant1811
non-resistant1850
society > authority > subjection > obedience > submissiveness > submission > [noun] > non-resistance > one who practises
non-resistant1850
non-resister1851
passivist1892
1755 in S. M. Hamilton Lett. to Washington (1898) I. 91 The fighting Faction..threaten to put to Death all the Non-resistents—Dunkers, Moravians, Dutch and Quakers.]
1850 J. G. Saxe Poems 1 When for their dogmas Non-Resistants fight.
1863 W. Phillips Speeches xvii. 385 I confess I am not a non-resistant.
1883 Cent. Mag. Aug. 637/2 There is no real danger that that court will make any mistake on the question whether slavery was at last abolished by ferocious non-resistants and disunionists.
1913 Amer. Hist. Rev. 18 716 They were non-resistants; but..their foes were not of the flesh.
1991 Jrnl. Brit. Stud. 30 352 Pecqueur's letter..included a proposal for the establishment of ‘a cosmopolitan police, or armed force’,..which went too far for the nonresistants at the conference.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1702