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Inactive   /ɪnˈæktɪv/   Listen
adjective
Inactive  adj.  
1.
Not active; having no power to move; that does not or can not produce results; inert; as, matter is, of itself, inactive.
2.
Not disposed to action or effort; not diligent or industrious; not busy; idle; as, an inactive officer.
3.
(Chem. & Opt.) Not exhibiting any action or activity on polarized light; optically inactive; optically neutral; said of isomeric forms of certain substances, in distinction from other forms which are optically active; as, racemic acid is an inactive tartaric acid.
4.
(Chem. & Biochem.) Lacking biological or biochemical activity; not causing a specific biological or biochemical effect; said of substances such as enzymes which have lost their catalytic power, or of small molecules which are tested for some type of biological activity and found to lack that activity; as, after boiling for ten minutes, the enzyme was totally inactive; the methyl analog was inactive as an antibiotic.
Synonyms: Inert; dull; sluggish; idle; indolent; slothful; lazy. See Inert.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Inactive" Quotes from Famous Books



... a restless straining after some self-centred excellence, and a coldness of affection which indicates the isolation towards which it is carried in later life. Lastly, there is the unquiet group of nervous or melancholic temperaments, their melancholy not weighed down by listless sadness as the inactive lymphatics, but more actively dissatisfied with things as they are—untiringly but unhopefully at work—hard on themselves, anxious-minded, assured that in spite of their efforts all will turn out for the worst, often scrupulous, ...
— The Education of Catholic Girls • Janet Erskine Stuart

... nutrition which brings blood to the active parts, and without which the currents flow more largely around than through the muscles. The lessened blood-supply is a result of diminished functional movement, and we need to create a constant demand in the inactive parts. But, besides this, every active muscle is practically a throbbing heart, squeezing its vessels empty while in motion, and relaxing, so as to allow them to fill up anew. Thus, both for itself and in its relations ...
— Fat and Blood - An Essay on the Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria • S. Weir Mitchell

... enter the service without compulsion; and if this expedient be not approved, another ought to be suggested: for I hope gentlemen are united in their endeavours to find out some method of security to the publick, and do not obstruct the proceedings of the committee, that when the fleets lie inactive and useless, they may have an opportunity to ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 10. - Parlimentary Debates I. • Samuel Johnson

... that Caussin ought to dispose the king's mind to see the wisdom of the resolution. It happened, however, that Caussin considered that this lady, whose zeal for the happiness of the people was well known, might prove more serviceable at court than in a cloister, so that the good father was very inactive in the business, and the minister began to suspect that he had in hand an instrument not at all fitted ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. II (of 3) - Edited, With Memoir And Notes, By His Son, The Earl Of Beaconsfield • Isaac D'Israeli

... to use her money to satisfy his creditors. Antony, who mentions this marriage in his answer to the Phillippics, reproaches him for putting away a wife with whom he had lived to old age; adding some happy strokes of sarcasm on Cicero's domestic, inactive, unsoldier-like habits. Not long after this marriage, his daughter died at Lentulus's house, to whom she had been married after the death of Piso, her former husband. The philosophers from all parts came to comfort Cicero; for his grief was so excessive, ...
— The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch - Being Parts of The "Lives" of Plutarch • Plutarch


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