Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not awake; asleep.
- adjective Present but not active or manifest though capable of becoming so: synonym: inactive.
- adjective Temporarily inactive.
- adjective Being in a condition of biological rest or inactivity characterized by cessation of growth or development and the suspension of many metabolic processes.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Sleeping; asleep.
- In heraldry, lying down with its head on its fore paws, as if asleep: said of a beast used as a bearing.
- Hibernating: said of certain animals.
- In a state of rest or inactivity; quiescent; not in action, movement, force, or operation; being or kept in abeyance: as, a dormant rebellion; a dormant title; dormant privileges.
- noun A beam; a sleeper: formerly also dormond, dormant-tree. Also
dormer. Halliwell . - noun A dish which remains from the beginning to the end of a repast, such as cold pies, hams, and potted meats, placed down the middle of the table at a large entertainment; a centerpiece which is not removed.
- In botany, not active or growing.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Arch.) A large beam in the roof of a house upon which portions of the other timbers rest or “ sleep.”
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Inactive ,asleep ,suspended .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective lying with head on paws as if sleeping
- adjective in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
- adjective (of e.g. volcanos) not erupting and not extinct
- adjective inactive but capable of becoming active
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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They are dormant, at any rate, to use another word, for the death of my text is not so absolute a death but that a resurrection is possible, and so _dormant_ comes to express pretty nearly the same thing.
Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John Alexander Maclaren 1868
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The term dormant factor (bag-la nyal) means, literally, something that is “asleep to the taste of the mind.”
Dormant Grasping for True Existence According to Gelug Madhyamaka 2006
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How long they will remain dormant is anybody's guess.
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The firm's court-appointed receiver, Lee Richards, said the move "greatly reduced" the assets of the company, which he described as a dormant entity with no clients that served solely as a proprietary trading unit, Bloomberg reports.
Bobsguide News 2009
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The firm's court-appointed receiver, Lee Richards, said the move "greatly reduced" the assets of the company, which he described as a dormant entity with no clients that served solely as a proprietary trading unit, Bloomberg reports.
Bobsguide News 2009
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A human thirst for revenge, long dead, awakened in dormant parts of the brainstem.
365 tomorrows » Wake Up : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009
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A human thirst for revenge, long dead, awakened in dormant parts of the brainstem.
365 tomorrows » 2009 » December : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009
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A human thirst for revenge, long dead, awakened in dormant parts of the brainstem.
365 tomorrows » Duncan Shields : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2010
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Clause 86 will remain dormant until the government chooses to enact it by order-in-council.
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But this side of her nature had lain dormant through the years, waiting for the mate to appear.
Chapter 2 2010
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