passivepas‧sive1 /ˈpæsɪv/ ●●○ AWL adjective 
Kathy seems to take a very passive role in the relationship. their passive acceptance of their fate2technical a passive verb or sentence has as its subject the person or thing to which an action is done, as in ‘His father was killed in a car accident.’ → active1(6)—passively adverb: He listened passively as his sentence was read out.—passivity /pæˈsɪvəti/ noun [uncountable]
WORD ORIGINpassive1
Origin:
1300-1400 Latin passivus, from pati; ➔ PASSIONEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Emma plays far too passive a role in group discussions.
- The story's main female character is shown as an attractive but rather passive woman.
- The student's role in a traditional classroom learning environment is a passive one.
- You're too passive, Harry. You should just tell her you don't want to go.
- An analysis of the 1987 survey was undertaken to estimate the dose-response relations of height and respiratory symptoms to passive smoking.
- Duffy refuses to fall into the trap of spoon-feeding the material to passive students, which only increases their passivity.
- Explain the difference between the passive and active voice and wordy and concise word use as objectively as possible.
- For decades it has cowed public employees, left them docile, passive, and bitter.
- Heat-sensing passive infra-red detectors with a fifty-feet range.
- Her licentiousness was entirely passive, reflecting not her own desires but those of the man she was with.
- The second, 1 Cor 6: 9-11, speaks about both the active and the passive participants in homosexual activity.
Longman Language Activatornot doing anything
not doing anything, especially work, because there is nothing to do: · Almost half the skilled workers in this country are now idle.sit/stand idle: · Hundreds of workers sat idle on the factory floor waiting for the assembly line to start again.
not doing anything, for example, because you are old or ill: · She dreads becoming old and inactive.· Very shy people often become socially inactive.
not making decisions or taking control of situations yourself but allowing other people to do it for you, especially in a situation where other people are trying to control or influence you: · Emma plays far too passive a role in group discussions.· You're too passive, Harry. You should just tell her you don't want to go.
WORD SETSabbr., abbreviate, verbabbreviation, nounabstract noun, nounaccusative, nounactive, adjectiveadj., adjective, nounadv., adverb, nounadverbial, adjectiveaffix, nounantecedent, nounapposition, nounarticle, nounaspect, nounattributive, adjectiveaux., auxiliary, nounauxiliary verb, nouncase, nouncausal, adjectiveclause, nouncollective noun, nouncommon noun, nouncomparative, adjectivecomparison, nouncomplement, nouncomplex, adjectivecompound, nounconcord, nounconcrete noun, nounconditional, adjectiveconditional, nounconj., conjugate, verbconjugation, nounconjunction, nounconnective, nounconstruction, nouncontinuous, adjectivecontraction, nouncoordinate, adjectivecoordinating conjunction, nouncopula, nouncountable, adjectivecount noun, noundative, noundeclension, noundefinite article, noundemonstrative, adjectivedemonstrative pronoun, noundependent clause, noundeterminer, noundirect discourse, noundirect object, noundirect speech, noundisjunctive, adjectiveditransitive, adjectivedouble negative, noun-ed, suffixending, noun-est, suffix-eth, suffixfeminine, adjectivefinite, adjectiveform, nounfunction word, nounfuture, adjectivegender, noungenitive, noungerund, noungradable, adjectivegrammar, noungrammarian, noungrammatical, adjectivehistoric present, nounhomonym, nounhomophone, nounimperative, adjectiveimperative, nounimpersonal, adjectiveindefinite article, nounindependent clause, nounindicative, nounindicative, adjectiveindirect discourse, nounindirect object, nounindirect speech, nouninfinitive, nouninflect, verbinflected, adjectiveinflection, noun-ing, suffixintensifier, nouninterjection, nouninterrogative, adjectiveinterrogative, nounintransitive, adjectivelinking verb, nounmain clause, nounmasculine, adjectivemodal, nounmodal auxiliary, nounmodal verb, nounmodifier, nounmodify, verbmood, nounn., neuter, adjectivenominal, adjectivenominative, nounnon-finite, adjectivenon-restrictive, adjectivenoun, nounnumber, nounobject, nounparse, verbparticipial, adjectiveparticiple, nounparticle, nounpartitive, nounpart of speech, nounpassive, adjectivepassivize, verbpast, adjectivepast participle, nounpast perfect, nounperfect participle, nounperiphrasis, nounpersonal pronoun, nounphrasal verb, nounphrase, nounpl., plural, nounplural, adjectiveplurality, nounpossessive, adjectivepossessive, nounpredeterminer, nounpredicate, nounpredicative, adjectiveprefix, nounprefix, verbprep., preposition, nounprepositional phrase, nounpres., present participle, nounprogressive, adjectivepronominal, adjectivepronoun, nounproper noun, nounpunctuate, verbpunctuation, nounqualifier, nounquantifier, nounquestion tag, nounreflexive, adjectiveregular, adjectiverelative clause, nounrelative pronoun, nounreported speech, nounrestrictive clause, nounroot, nounrule, nounrun-on sentence, nounsecond person, nounsemicolon, nounsentence, nounsentence adverb, nounsingular, adjectivesolecism, nounsplit infinitive, nounstative, adjectivestem, nounsubject, nounsubjective, adjectivesubjunctive, nounsubordinate clause, nounsubstantive, nounsuffix, nounsuperlative, adjectivesyntactic, adjectivesyntax, nountag, nountense, nountransitive, adjectiveuncountable, adjectivev., variant, nounverb, nounverbal, adjectivevocative, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES the risks of passive smoking (=breathing in smoke from other people’s cigarettes)
(=a way of protesting against something or opposing a government without using violence)· Suffragettes resorted to passive resistance as the only weapon at their disposal.
the risks of passive smoking (=breathing in smoke from other people’s cigarettes) (=having the person or thing that the action is done to as the subject)· Passive verbs may be necessary, but use them sparingly.
(=the words they can understand but do not use)· Your passive vocabulary is much larger than your active vocabulary.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Underlying the sequence is a view of the learner as a relatively passive recipient of instruction.· First, talking politics is an active form of political participation; mass media exposure is relatively passive.· Measures of female aggression tend to be relatively passive, pencil and paper responses.· Dominating such studies has been a tendency to perceive objects as being reflective in a relatively passive sense.
· I think a great problem is that parenting has become way too passive.· Whether bound for work or college, this research suggests, many students are too passive.
NOUN· This school is too awful to deserve passive acceptance.· Analytical reading of history texts should never permit a passive acceptance of other people's interpretations of the past.· Yet because of their passive acceptance of the ministrations of their neighbours they become the focus of attention.
· Animacy is, however, only one of the factors which influences selection of a passive form to describe a particular situation.
· Underlying the sequence is a view of the learner as a relatively passive recipient of instruction.· Simultaneously, women were conceptualised as the passive recipients of scientific manipulation.· No longer passive recipients of instruction, pupils are encouraged to be active collaborators in the learning process.· However, the railways are not passive recipients of such political pressure, but political actors and manipulators in their own right.· The directly concerned populations are invariably viewed as passive recipients of plans.· These reformers, however, were not passive recipients of a message from on high.· Often they are organized by younger people who merely expect ageing members to be passive recipients of organized events.
· The Magdalen College affair, for example, provides a classic example of passive resistance.· Nor could Edna forgive Jane her offensive passive resistance.· Within the classroom too teachers have to live with an active or passive resistance to their best efforts.· Open negativism turns into stony passive resistance.· There was great resentment, and considerable passive resistance.· But passive resistance doesn't work.· You can either hit these germs with an antibiotic, or paralyse your bowels and win through passive resistance.· Chancellor Cuno's government proclaimed a policy of passive resistance, which entailed unlimited subsidies to the population of the Ruhr.
· Roles Inspection by its nature casts teachers and schools in a passive role.· The passive role of television viewers simply heightens its effect.· The Independent Companies were therefore forced into a more passive role which nevertheless made a contribution to the main forces' campaigns.· We ourselves had only a passive role.· The female adopts a more passive role in conception than the male, and physiologically she has less to do.· He had performed here many times in the past and the passive role was hard to take.· The therapeutic approach has tended to cast Disabled people in very passive roles, initiated and controlled by non-Disabled professionals.· Mrs Bloggs plays a passive role, adjusting to the situation.
· As both the active and the passive sentence mean the same thing, it is reasonable to ask why we need both.· Subjects were told whether to produce an active or a passive sentence to describe the picture, and production latency was measured.· In a literary essay, however, you should be cautious about leaving out the actor in a passive sentence.· No distinction is made, for example, between active versus passive sentences.· Another method of making a passive sentence active is to change the subject of the verb.· The second advantage of passive sentences is that they have a different word order from active sentences.
· Or it may have been through passive smoking.· This means that several hundred of the 40,000 deaths from lung cancer each year may be caused by passive smoking.· An analysis of the 1987 survey was undertaken to estimate the dose-response relations of height and respiratory symptoms to passive smoking.· The tobacco industry requested that Stivoro be stopped from propagating its position on passive smoking.· Specialist medical evidence in the case showed that he had developed lung cancer as a result of active and passive smoking.· Cotinine in the urine is a reliable indicator that the subject has been exposed to passive smoking.· The authors conclude that the risk of respiratory conditions resulting from passive smoking, although small, is not negligible. 2.· Their wickedness was emphasised by several large posters detailing the dangers of both active and passive smoking.
· None the less, neither governments nor peoples are simply passive victims.· You can become a passive victim of situations that are far beyond your control.· We are not passive victims of the television set.
· This hypothesis requires further analysis of the passive voice before it can be considered confirmed however.· But, serious accidents can happen along the way when you use the passive voice.· In the passive voice the subject does not do the action: it suffers the action.· His prose is filled with active verbs and metaphors, instead of the passive voice and jargon frequently churned out by academics.· Like most great rules, the rule against the passive voice has exceptions.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- But, serious accidents can happen along the way when you use the passive voice.
- Explain the difference between the passive and active voice and wordy and concise word use as objectively as possible.
- In the active voice the subject of the sentence does the action.
- In the passive voice the subject does not do the action: it suffers the action.
- Secrets of the Passive Voice Revealed!
- This hypothesis requires further analysis of the passive voice before it can be considered confirmed however.
- Truth: Passive and active voice address a structural issue only-the relationship between the actor and the action in the sentence.
- Use only the active voice for procedures and employ it as much as possible for descriptions and operations.
WORD FAMILYnounpassivityadjectivepassiveadverbpassively
1someone who is passive tends to accept things that happen to them or things that people say to them, without taking any action: Kathy seems to take a very passive role in the relationship. their passive acceptance of their fate2technical a passive verb or sentence has as its subject the person or thing to which an action is done, as in ‘His father was killed in a car accident.’ → active1(6)—passively adverb: He listened passively as his sentence was read out.—passivity /pæˈsɪvəti/ noun [uncountable]