| / English Dictionary |
PASSIVELY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a passive manner
Example:
he listened passively
Classified under:
Antonym:
actively (in an active manner)
Pertainym:
passive (lacking in energy or will)
Context examples:
It was not the fear that he should die passively from lack of food, but that he should be destroyed violently before starvation had exhausted the last particle of the endeavor in him that made toward surviving.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
I was glad to accept her hospitality; and I submitted to be relieved of my travelling garb just as passively as I used to let her undress me when a child.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
"We discovered why birds don't need one: their flapping wings don't only offer propulsion — they also orient into the wind passively like a weathervane."
(Scientists discover how birds navigate crosswinds, National Science Foundation)
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