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Inactive   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



... of the group of volcanic mountains, is about 4,400 feet high. It had long been inactive as a volcano, although in August, 1851, it had a violent eruption. It is in the northwestern end of the island, and near the foot of its western slope, fronting the bay, ...
— Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror • Richard Linthicum

... gathered in their home, the family of Sir Howard were not inactive. The spirit of charity was manifest in every action of those lovely girls. Mary Douglas and Lady Rosamond had formed a sewing circle, to which they invited some of their young acquaintances. In this charitable employment ...
— Lady Rosamond's Secret - A Romance of Fredericton • Rebecca Agatha Armour

... a nutshell," went on the Prime Minister. "We are doomed unless succor reaches us from the outside. We have discussed a hundred projects. While we are inactive, Count Marlanx is gaining more power and a greater hold over the people of the city. We have no means of communication with Prince Dantan of Dawsbergen, who is our friend. We seem unable to get warning to John Tullis, who, if given time, might succeed in collecting ...
— Truxton King - A Story of Graustark • George Barr McCutcheon

... of the same two great classes pass through considerable and often great changes during their development. Spiders, again, barely undergo any metamorphosis. The larvae of most insects pass through a worm-like stage, whether they are active and adapted to diversified habits, or are inactive from being placed in the midst of proper nutriment, or from being fed by their parents; but in some few cases, as in that of Aphis, if we look to the admirable drawings of the development of this insect, by Professor Huxley, we see hardly any ...
— On the Origin of Species - 6th Edition • Charles Darwin

... drummer-boys of Strahan's regiment. I don't wish to take advantage of your present feeling, or have you forget that I am still under a miserable restraint which I can't explain. I must probably resume my old inactive life, while your other friends win fame and rank in serving their country. Of course I shall give money, but bah! what's that to a girl like you? When all this hurly-burly in the streets is over, when conventional life begins again, and I seem a part of it, ...
— An Original Belle • E. P. Roe

... was that Jupiter bestowed on him the gift of perpetual youth united with perpetual sleep. Of one so gifted we can have but few adventures to record. Diana, it was said, took care that his fortunes should not suffer by his inactive life, for she made his flock increase, and guarded his sheep and ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... have to rely upon memory or our power of imitation, and to do simply as we are told without thinking about it. The consequence is that at the very first difficulty we are left to flounder about in the dark, or to remain inactive till the master comes ...
— The Theory and Practice of Perspective • George Adolphus Storey

... that laugh had broken the spell which held him inactive: "Come," he cried, and drew her to the foot of the cliff; "we have not a moment to lose! Look! Do you see the way I came down? See that long slide in the sand? I tobogganed down there on my back. Pretty ...
— The Mistress of Shenstone • Florence L. Barclay

... forced to make use of such expedients. It is not safe in a faction where you are only upon the defensive to do what you are not pressed to do, but the uneasiness of the subalterns on such occasions is troublesome, because they believe that as soon as you seem to be inactive all is lost. I preached every day that the way was yet rough, and therefore must be made plain, and that patience in the present case was productive of greater effects than activity; but nobody comprehended the truth of what ...
— The Memoirs of Cardinal de Retz, Complete • Jean Francois Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz

... VESSEL Breath; the belief that the soul is inactive and worthless until revived by the ...
— Rugs: Oriental and Occidental, Antique & Modern - A Handbook for Ready Reference • Rosa Belle Holt

... this occupied a considerable amount of time, so I made a practice of spending a couple of hours each day on the work, whenever possible, hoping thereby to pick up the "leeway." I did not take too kindly to inactive writing in the Shack, but the weather conditions were such that I was glad to stay indoors, though that meant enduring the inevitable cold feet. The floor of the Shack was never warm, and of course there were ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson

... hope. Here, at the island, the dragon was roused; Attwater with his men and his Winchesters watched and patrolled the house; let him who dare approach it. What else was then left but to sit there, inactive, pacing the decks—until the Trinity Hall arrived and they were cast into irons, or until the food came to an end, and the pangs of famine succeeded? For the Trinity Hall Davis was prepared; he would barricade the house, and die there defending ...
— The Ebb-Tide - A Trio And Quartette • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... chagrin of seeing some nights after, his part filled by an old man and a bad player. During the remainder of the season he continued with Stephen Kemble, without at all appearing on the stage. From Edinburgh he went with the company to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there he lived as dependent, inactive, and undistinguished as before, till, owing to the want of a person to fill the part of Malcolm in Macbeth, he was cast to that humble character. In so inferior a sphere did he begin to move who ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor - Volume I, Number 1 • Stephen Cullen Carpenter

... has suffered: not that this proves much, because the Catholics have enjoyed the sovereign power for so few years between this period and the Reformation; and certainly it must be allowed that they were not inactive, during that period, in the great ...
— Sydney Smith • George W. E. Russell

... to them. This is one of our best poison baits for flies which get in the home or collect about the dairy. Formaldehyde is a poison and when used in bait it must be kept out of reach of children. Just about frost, in the fall, watch for the appearance of inactive flies on walls, windows and other parts of the house. These have been attacked by a parasitic disease. These are often found sticking to walls and other objects about the room in the winter, and are commonly thought ...
— An Elementary Study of Insects • Leonard Haseman

... stood there, uncertain, held inactive by the two warring emotions, George turned and staggered away, reeling, and crying out in ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... of fortune from this change of men, and cheerfully made every exertion, of which they were capable, for the ensuing campaign. The circular letter of Mr. Pitt assured the several governors that, to repair the losses and disappointments of the last inactive campaign, the cabinet was determined to send a formidable force, to operate by sea and land, against the French in America; and he called upon them to raise as large bodies of men, within their respective governments, ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 1 (of 5) • John Marshall

... into a depression in the ground, thus concealing his body from the unseen shooter. But in the meantime Captain. McKay had not been inactive. It seemed as if the bullet that had been fired at him from the bushes had barely shrieked past his ear, when the captain wheeled. His revolver—-two of them—-had appeared in his hands ...
— The Pony Rider Boys with the Texas Rangers • Frank Gee Patchin

... live with less labor, and on better food. The characteristic features produced by these causes are such as might be expected—the Catholic being, like his soil, hardy, thin, and capable of bearing all weathers; and the Protestants, larger, softer, and more inactive. ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... and former history. Now, in order to effect a recovery, I have reversed these experiences with her. She is at present plunged into a deep sleep, under the influence of narcotics that have rendered her brain absolutely inactive. It is really a state of coma, and I wish her to waken in this house, amid the scenes with which she was formerly familiar. By this means I hope to induce her mental faculties to resume their ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work • Edith Van Dyne

... Harley, "I was ridiculously inactive. You see, I am a mere amateur, Inspector. For my future guidance I should be glad to know what the correct ...
— Bat Wing • Sax Rohmer

... Brunei United National Party (inactive), Anak HASANUDDIN, chairman; Brunei National Solidarity Party (the first legal political party and now banned), leader NA; Brunei ...
— The 1995 CIA World Factbook • United States Central Intelligence Agency

... effort on his own part. But he is active in everything he does, and he does everything that depends on his being alive. Life is activity, and every manifestation of life, such as reflex action or sensation, is a form of vital activity. The only way to be inactive ...
— Psychology - A Study Of Mental Life • Robert S. Woodworth

... interferes with the prosecution of hostilities, while at the same time it is necessary to occupy a portion of the hostile territory. We have had numerous examples of this kind of camps—indeed, our armies occupy them generally while lying inactive during the winter. The character of the ground must always determine the shape and features of such a camp, but unless peculiar modifying circumstances dictate otherwise, the general form is that of the arc of a circle. This, with extensions at the sides to cover the flanks, and a ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 6, December 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... has never attracted and when people say that one looks tired, it is time to smile and deny it, for the "Spot" is beginning to take form. The body should never be permitted to settle. In Cuba, the women have enormous hips because they sit so much and are inactive. ...
— The Colored Girl Beautiful • E. Azalia Hackley

... the forces opposed to him by at least two thousand men, since Mortier's corps, guarding the northwest road, was perforce inactive, and since six thousand men had been left at Champaubert under Marmont to retain Bluecher, attacked with the utmost stubbornness and gallantry. He could make no impression on Friant, echeloned on the main road, and before the resolute resistance his advancing divisions slowly obliqued ...
— The Eagle of the Empire - A Story of Waterloo • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... one who has wandered over them. If a party of men go out hunting with dogs and horses, they will be accompanied, during the day, by several of these attendants. After feeding, the uncovered craw protrudes; at such times, and indeed generally, the Carrancha is an inactive, tame, and cowardly bird. Its flight is heavy and slow, like that of an English rook. It seldom soars; but I have twice seen one at a great height gliding through the air with much ease. It runs (in contradistinction to hopping), but not quite so quickly ...
— The Voyage of the Beagle • Charles Darwin

... elevation; a beautiful bird, with glossy-green back and rose-coloured breast (probably Trogon melanurus). At intervals it uttered, in a complaining tone, a sound resembling the words "qua, qua." It is a dull inactive bird, and not very ready to take flight when approached. In this respect, however, the trogons are not equal to the jacamars, whose stupidity in remaining at their posts, seated on low branches in the gloomiest shades of the forest, ...
— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... cuite consists in mixing during 24 hours the hot product, direct from the pan, with low grade molasses. Gradual cooling follows. The crystals of masse cuite effect a crystallization of the otherwise inactive product contained in the molasses. The separation of crystals from adhering molasses is done in a special washing appliance ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 832, December 12, 1891 • Various

... possible issue. I had the power, and yet had not the power, to decide it. I had the power, if I could raise myself to will it; and yet again I had not the power, for the weight of twenty Atlantics was upon me, or the oppression of inexpiable guilt. 'Deeper than ever plummit sounded,' I lay inactive. Then, like a chorus, the passion deepened. Some greater interest was at stake; some mightier cause than ever yet the sword had pleaded, or trumpet had proclaimed. Then came sudden alarms; hurryings ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... action was going on, cross the river and march straight upon Richmond; but communication was difficult from one part of the army to another, owing to the thick forests and the swampy state of the ground, and being without orders they remained inactive all day. The loss on their side had been 7000 men, while the Confederates had lost 4500; and General Johnston being seriously wounded, the chief command was given to General Lee, by far the ablest soldier the war produced. Satisfied with ...
— With Lee in Virginia - A Story of the American Civil War • G. A. Henty

... want to act under the stimulus of one impression, but before the impulse is realized, some other perhaps rather indifferent impression forces itself on their minds and suggests the counteraction, and in this way they vacillate and remain inactive until it is too late to give the right order or to press the right button. The other type feels only the necessity for rapid action, and under the pressure of greatest haste, without clear thought, they jump to the first decision ...
— Psychology and Industrial Efficiency • Hugo Muensterberg

... seem to lack ambition have sluggish minds. They are steady, patient and seemingly have good control, but this does not say they are able to concentrate. These people are indolent, inactive, slow and listless, because they lack energy; they do not lose control because they have little force to control. They have no temper and it therefore cannot disturb them. Their actions are steady because ...
— The Power of Concentration • Theron Q. Dumont

... Inactive, I stood by the door watching my friend, and his face was a fruitful study in perplexity. He seemed upon the point of an angry outburst, then, staring intently into the questioning eyes upraised to his, he checked the words he would have ...
— The Hand Of Fu-Manchu - Being a New Phase in the Activities of Fu-Manchu, the Devil Doctor • Sax Rohmer

... everyone took for granted the victory of the Grass. No concerted efforts were made either to confine or to destroy it. The World Congress to Combat the Grass, far from being inactive, worked heroically, but it got little cooperation from the peoples most closely affected. When at one time it seemed as though the congress had got hold of a possible weapon, the Venezuelans refused them the necessary sites and Brazil would not allow passage of foreign ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore

... lead to the Lyngen Fjord. How long would it stop there? Step by step it would move along the coast southwards to Drontheim. Then Norrland would be surrounded on three sides by Russians. "Later on they would tighten the noose and strangle our country. Are we to remain inactive during the course of events?... The Swede in general is aware of the existence of this danger and knows that it may come upon him at any moment as ...
— England and Germany • Emile Joseph Dillon

... done in his youth, the stronger among the strong. He carefully examined the harmoniously developed little muscles. What a knight this child promised to become! Surely it was hardly created for quiet prayer and the inactive peace of the cloister! He was still free to dispose of the boy. If he should intrust his physical development to the reliable Quijada, skilled in every knightly art, and to Count Lanoi, famed as a rider and judge of horses; confide the training of his mind ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... first-class condition. The only features of note about these two incidents was that in each case the man-eater was a powerful animal in the prime of life; whereas it frequently happens that the jaguars that turn man- eaters are old animals, and have become too inactive or too feeble ...
— Through the Brazilian Wilderness • Theodore Roosevelt

... never be brought to the front, except to engage. It is unfortunate when the ground is such as to prevent this; for cavalry, compelled to remain inactive under fire, is in great ...
— A Treatise on the Tactical Use of the Three Arms: Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry • Francis J. Lippitt

... agitating oneself, no reason why one should give oneself trouble. He only will succeed here who traces his onward path as patiently as the plougher traces the furrow with his plough. And what strength there is in all around; what robust health dwells in the midst of this inactive stillness! There under the window climbs the large-leaved burdock from the thick grass. Above it the lovage extends its sappy stalk, while higher still the Virgin's tears hang out their rosy tendrils. ...
— Liza - "A nest of nobles" • Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

... Vincennes and compelled Hamilton to surrender. The blow was a severe one and robbed the western tribes of their courage; they were so discomfited, indeed, that they would not venture into the country of the enemy. Balked in his purpose, Brant was forced to remain inactive at headquarters. ...
— The War Chief of the Six Nations - A Chronicle of Joseph Brant - Volume 16 (of 32) in the series Chronicles of Canada • Louis Aubrey Wood

... that it was a pity they were so inactive. Could not one or two of the more favoured sex manage to inspire them with ...
— The Daughters of Danaus • Mona Caird

... influences which affect the nerves. The emotions exert a remarkable influence upon the action of the perspiratory glands. Intense fear causes great drops of perspiration to accumulate on the skin, while the salivary glands remain inactive. ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... of circumlocution, and tells the incident imperfectly in many words, which might have been more plainly delivered in few. Narration in dramatick poetry is naturally tedious, as it is unanimated and inactive, and obstructs the progress of the action; it should, therefore, always be rapid, and enlivened by frequent interruption. Shakespeare found it an incumbrance, and instead of lightening it by brevity, endeavoured to recommend ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume V: Miscellaneous Pieces • Samuel Johnson

... terminates by flashes of flame and by ashes issuing from the crater, that is, from the summit of the mountain. At the Peak this phenomenon has not been witnessed for ages: and yet recently, in the eruption of 1798, the crater remained quite inactive. Its bottom did not sink in; while at Vesuvius, as M. von Buch has observed, the greater or less depth of the crater is an infallible indication of the proximity ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt

... stepsisters, devoted to the little girl, and perhaps not altogether sorry to be rid of a stepmother younger than themselves, had tried to make up for that loss, but they were much occupied with the social activities of Radstowe and they belonged to an otherwise inactive generation, so that if Rose had a grievance it was that they never played games with her, never ran, or played ball or bowled hoops as she saw the mothers of other children doing. For such sporting she had to rely upon her nurse who was of rather a solemn ...
— THE MISSES MALLETT • E. H. YOUNG

... predilection for wild pranks comes from the lack of culture in so far as it is dependent upon the excess of energy and upon idleness. There cannot be any doubt that our merchant class, with but few exceptions, is the healthiest and, at the same time, most inactive class." ...
— Foma Gordyeff - (The Man Who Was Afraid) • Maxim Gorky

... overpower the discontents of those who have not been able to assert their share of the spoil. The unfortunate adventurers in the cheating lottery of plunder will probably be the least sagacious or the most inactive and irresolute of the gang. If, on disappointment, they should dare to stir, they will soon be suppressed as rebels and mutineers by their brother rebels. Scantily fed for a while with the offal of plunder, they will drop off by degrees; they ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. IV. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... examined this point, the clearer it appeared to him, who had known his friend's only son from an infant, and had always felt much interested in him. As a child, and a boy, William Stanley had been of a morose temper, and of a sluggish, inactive mind—not positively stupid, but certainly far from clever; this claimant, on the contrary, had all the expression and manner of a shrewd, quick-witted man, who might be passionate, but who looked like ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... a natural mental process. We all know that placebos work admirably in numerous cases. The dictionary defines the word placebo as, "an inactive substance or preparation, administered to please or gratify a patient, also used in controlled studies to determine the efficiency of medicinal substances." Many controlled experiments have shown that people achieve similar results whether they take ...
— A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis • Melvin Powers

... war which their intemperate zeal, actuated by the ambition of their leaders, had kindled in the kingdom. The admiral was successful in reducing the towns of Normandy which held for the king; but he frequently complained that the numerous garrison of Havre remained totally inactive, and was not employed in any military operation against the common enemy. The queen, in taking possession of that place, had published a manifesto,[*] in which she pretended that her concern for the interests of the French ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. - From Elizabeth to James I. • David Hume

... art, from the fine arts of painting and sculpture to the practical and useful work of design in its multifold forms, women's advance is almost phenomenal. In the sciences of astronomy, medicine, physics, and psychology she has been far from inactive during the last half decade. In teaching, in all its branches from kindergarten and primary work through all the grades of intrauniversity training to specialization in various lines, she has achieved her most striking success. In the future her usefulness will be more and more increased ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

... expressed by V 1/(Q x R) (3.) Under two legal standards, obeys Gresham's law—e.g., experience of Japan and the United States. (4.) Substitutes for money, called credit (which is not capital, but calls out inactive capital). ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • John Stuart Mill

... commanded by a small squadron of gunboats under Benedict Arnold, and, deeming it impossible to advance, delayed all summer in order to construct a rival fleet. Meanwhile, all operations came to a standstill in that region. Eleven thousand men, chiefly regular troops, were thus kept inactive ...
— The Wars Between England and America • T. C. Smith

... and prepared to charge. The Boers, however, began discreetly to remove themselves to a second position still better intrenched, from whence they could fire on the British as they gained the top. At this time the British guns were forced to be almost inactive, as the storming line was now so near the crest that the shrapnel could only be directed on the enemy by enfilading the position from the ridge of the kopje on the left, and it was during the lull that Lieutenant Taylor, Yorkshire ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) - From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, - 15th Dec. 1899 • Louis Creswicke

... overtook by superior fleetness, the goat it must be understood was with young and extreemly poor. a great number of these goats are devowered by the wolves and bear at this season when they are poor and passing the river from S. W. to N. E. they are very inactive and easily taken in the water, a man can out swim them with great ease; the Indians take them in great numbers in the river at this season and in autumn when they repass ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... the skin; and when the skin does not do its full duty, the kidneys have to do more than they should, and hence are likely to become diseased. For this reason, persons who allow their skins to become inactive by neglecting to bathe frequently are apt to have disease of ...
— First Book in Physiology and Hygiene • J.H. Kellogg

... he realised that he was very like others. An inactive fatalism had seized him. He was too proud, too idle, too negligent, too curious, to do the wise thing. He and Christine were in the air-raid, and in it they should remain. He had just the senseless, monkeyish curiosity ...
— The Pretty Lady • Arnold E. Bennett

... ghastly interruption to their easy idyllic life was this grim revelation of selfishness. She began to doubt if even the hysterical excitement of her sister passengers was not merely a pleasant titillation of their bored and inactive nerves. ...
— The Crusade of the Excelsior • Bret Harte

... Putnam, shall we still encamp Inactive here; and with this gentle flood, By Cambridge murmuring, mix briny tears? Salt tears of grief by many a parent shed, For sons detain'd, and tender innocents In yon fair City, famishing for bread; For not fond mothers or their weeping babes— Can ...
— The Battle of Bunkers-Hill • Hugh Henry Brackenridge

... precisely as in the full-grown butterfly. Hence probably it is that caterpillars of different species of the Lepidoptera differ more than those embryos, at a corresponding early period of life, do which remain inactive in the womb of their parents. The parent during successive ages continuing to be adapted by selection for some one object, and the larva for quite another one, we need not wonder at the difference becoming wonderfully great between them; even as great as ...
— The Foundations of the Origin of Species - Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 • Charles Darwin

... the wolf and the wolf dog, their comrades on either side remaining inactive spectators, for Le Balafre roared out for fair play, adding that he would venture his nephew on him were ...
— Quentin Durward • Sir Walter Scott

... killed and wounded; and out of 3500 men, nearly 1000 killed and wounded; but I have the satisfaction of knowing that, as far as mortal can see, six months will see the end of this rebellion, while if I had continued inactive it might have lingered on for six years. Do not think that I am ill-tempered, but I do not care one jot about my promotion or what people may say. I know I shall leave China as poor as I entered it,[3] but with the knowledge that through my weak instrumentality ...
— General Gordon - A Christian Hero • Seton Churchill

... of this woman of the world with such an unworldly man as Mr. Ellenwood was announced soon after Mrs. Dabney's return to her native city. Superficial observers, and deeper ones, seemed to concur in supposing that the lady must have borne no inactive part in arranging the affair; there were considerations of expediency which she would be far more likely to appreciate than Mr. Ellenwood, and there was just the specious phantom of sentiment and romance in this late union of two early lovers ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... of Mid-Britain by the Engle that roused the West-Saxons to a new advance. For thirty years they had rested inactive within the limits of the Gwent, but in 552 their capture of the hill-fort of Old Sarum threw open the reaches of the Wiltshire downs, and a march of King Cuthwulf on the Thames in 571 made them masters of the districts which now form ...
— History of the English People, Volume I (of 8) - Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 • John Richard Green

... rear, and finally grounded his arms. He either did this too soon or too late. His flag was disregarded in the flush of battle, the bearer of it cut down by the hand of Tarleton, and the British infantry, with fixed bayonets, rushed upon the inactive Americans. Some of Beaufort's men, seeing that their application for quarter was disregarded, resolved to die like men, and resumed their arms. Their renewed fire provoked the massacre of the unresisting. A terrible butchery followed. The British gave no quarter. From that day, "Tarleton's ...
— The Life of Francis Marion • William Gilmore Simms

... permission for them to come. As all we who are bishops are informing his Majesty, those from whom that permission could with justice be taken away are the calced Augustinian friars; for this province of that order is very lax, and all who come from there become inactive, and most of them become traders, and skin the natives. There is a Master Solier there [i.e., in Espana]—who, it is said, is confessor to the president of the Indias, Marques de Salinas—who is said ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVII, 1609-1616 • Various

... to command a small place where he had to be inactive. He prepared an expedition against the city of Tenerife, considered one of the strongest in Nueva Granada and which prevented the free navigation of the Magdalena River. He left with only 400 men and seized the castle abandoned ...
— Simon Bolivar, the Liberator • Guillermo A. Sherwell

... but as we foresee that the caprices of the local officers, and the abuse of those rights by our boatmen and navigators, which neither government can prevent, will keep up a state of irritation which cannot long be kept inactive, we should be criminally improvident not to take at once eventual measures for strengthening ourselves for the contest. It may be said, if this object be so all-important to us, why do we not offer such a sum as to insure its ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... Stone House, seventeen miles from Fort George. The British force was much larger than Boerstler's, and on June 24th he was completely surrounded and forced to surrender. For some three months the main body of the army had remained inactive. Colonel Scott during the happening of the occurrences just related had been engaged in foraging expeditions for the supply of the army. These expeditions also resulted in combats between the opposing forces, in all of which Scott was successful. In July, ...
— General Scott • General Marcus J. Wright

... morning the first stroke of the pickaxe was struck upon the soil of Florida; and from that moment that prince of tools was never inactive for one moment in the hands of the excavators. The gangs relieved each ...
— Jules Verne's Classic Books • Jules Verne

... these laments that recalls the mournful Psalms of David; like the Psalmist he endeavored to be comforted, but it was by an effort. His political career was shrouded for ever—the motive to his great exertions was destroyed—but his mind, wrecked as it had been, could not remain inactive. In 1795 his private reply to Mr. Smith's letter, requesting his opinion of the expediency of and necessity for Catholic Emancipation, got into public circulation; and in that singular document, though he did not enter into the details of ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851 • Various

... over-worked mothers, are liable to be a dwarfed and puny race. However, their chances are better than those of the children of inactive, dependent, indolent mothers who have neither brain nor muscle to transmit to son or daughter. The truth seems to be that excessive labor, with either body or mind, is alike injurious to both men and women, and herein lies ...
— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... concealed, but not inactive, during a twelvemonth, when the news of a prosperous event reached his ears, and called him to the field. Hubba, the Dane, having spread devastation, fire, and slaughter over Wales, had landed in Devonshire from twenty-three vessels, and laid siege ...
— The History of England, Volume I • David Hume

... comfort of the house, now, on the contrary, under altered circumstances, became a positive proclamation of exposure and defencelessness, through one entire period of an hour. Williamson himself, it was said generally, being a large unwieldy man, past seventy, and signally inactive, ought, in prudence, to make the locking of his door coincident with the dismissal of his ...
— The Notebook of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas de Quincey

... already destroyed the value of untold millions, and has cost hundreds of thousands of promising human lives. I could almost envy you for being still spared to be an eyewitness of the great events, while I am condemned to the role of an inactive spectator. But I do not believe the struggle will last much longer. The sacrifices which it imposes on the people are too great to be endured many months longer. Everything is pressing to a speedy and decisive result, and I have no doubt what that result will ...
— The Coming Conquest of England • August Niemann

... leisure: the half-day is over" (15/2.); and he can satisfy his immense need not of repose, but of relaxation and distraction in less severe occupations; for he is never at any time nor anywhere inactive; incessantly making notes, with little stumps of pencil which he carries about in his pockets, and on the first scrap of paper that comes to hand, of all that passes through his mind. Those eternal afternoons, which usually, in the depth of the French provinces, ...
— Fabre, Poet of Science • Dr. G.V. (C.V.) Legros

... to-day, but there are rumors that Grant is preparing to abandon his position. He cannot remain where he is, inactive. There is a scarcity of water, and the location ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... time the sailors, unable to lie inactive, had joined the officers, and all were scattered in groups ...
— Jack Archer • G. A. Henty

... to reinforce a weak quadriceps, or reinforcing the weak invertors of the foot by a transplanted extensor hallucis longus. (2) Transplantation may also be performed to replace a muscle which is quite inactive and does not show any sign of recovery—for example, the tibiales being paralysed, the peroneus longus may be implanted into the navicular or first metatarsal to act as an invertor of ...
— Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. • Alexander Miles

... his face. There were deep mysterious shadows in the gorge, blue deepening into purple, and purple into a luminous darkness, and overhead was the illimitable vastness of the sky. But he heeded these things no longer, but lay quite inactive there, smiling as if he were satisfied merely to have escaped from the valley of the Blind in which he had ...
— The Country of the Blind, And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... extent, than by American females. Most English women, in the wealthier classes, are able to walk six and eight miles, without oppressive fatigue; and when they visit this Country, always express their surprise at the inactive habits of American ladies. In England, regular exercise, in the open air, is very commonly required by the mother, as a part of daily duty, and is sought by young women, as an enjoyment. In consequence of a different physical training, English women, in those circles which enjoy competency, ...
— A Treatise on Domestic Economy - For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School • Catherine Esther Beecher

... lips; hearing his whispered voice in her ears—the birth of her new life! This was followed again by a period of agonizing dread—that he might even then be lying, his life ebbing away, in the woods, with her name on his lips, and she resting here inactive, until she half started from her bed to go to his succor. And this went on until a pale opal glow came into the sky, followed by a still paler pink on the summit of the white Sierras, when she rose and hurriedly began to dress. Still so sanguine was her hope of meeting him, that she lingered ...
— Stories in Light and Shadow • Bret Harte

... under its influence, evaporation will be rapid; therefore, water must be applied to both roots and leaves. Succession plants to be shaded during sudden bright sunshine or sunbursts; and be guided in the application of water by the active or inactive state of ...
— In-Door Gardening for Every Week in the Year • William Keane

... diamond doors of her true soul, And with their silken latches softly closed, When, couched beneath his poppy parachute, Inactive Sleep came by. Her glances seemed Like gold-winged angels sent from heavenly doors. Yet she was often sad when I was near. Once, tarrying late, I told her of my life, And of the monster I had come to find; But now, lo! she around my heart had wound The close web of her ...
— Stories in Verse • Henry Abbey

... and then started off to follow the boys, trying hard to walk slowly and steadily; but it was all in vain. The hill-side sloped very steeply to the broad bed of willows and reeds far below, making the way very bad for so heavy and inactive a man. Worse still: walking over the short grass in the hot sun had made the bottoms of the monk's sandals as slippery as glass, and so it was that before he had gone far down the slope he began to talk to himself, at first slowly—then quickly—then ...
— The King's Sons • George Manville Fenn

... remarked in my walk, did not reflect the surrounding cheerfulness. Moody looks met me everywhere and on every side; and while courier after courier galloped by me bound for the castle, the townsfolk stood aloof is doorways listless and inactive, or, gathering in groups in corners, talked what I took to be treason under the breath. The queen-mother still lived, but Orleans had revolted, and Sens and Mans, Chartres and Melun. Rouen was said to be ...
— A Gentleman of France • Stanley Weyman

... has conclusively proven what he has stated in his proposition, is his speech ended? In some cases, yes; in many cases, no. Mere proof appeals to the intellect only; it settles matters perhaps, but leaves the hearer cold and humanly inactive. He may feel like saying, "Well, even if what you say is true, what are you going to do about it?" Mathematical and scientific proofs exist for mere information, but most arguments delivered before audiences have a purpose. They try ...
— Public Speaking • Clarence Stratton

... is volcanic in her temperament; she remains inactive for certain preparatory periods, but when she ...
— More Tish • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... be much more inclined to think this to be the end of the life in society; yet this itself is plainly not sufficiently final: for it is conceived possible, that a man possessed of virtue might sleep or be inactive all through his life, or, as a third case, suffer the greatest evils and misfortunes: and the man who should live thus no one would call happy, except for ...
— Ethics • Aristotle

... abundance of rich food, these live luxuriously, grow rapidly, increase in hight, bulk, thickness, every way, they early reach the full size which they are capable of attaining; having nothing to induce exertion, they become inactive, lazy, lethargic and fat. Being bred from, the progeny resemble the parents, "only more so." Each generation acquiring more firmly and fixedly the characteristics induced by their situation, these become hereditary, and we by and by have a breed exhibiting somewhat of the traits of the Teeswater ...
— The Principles of Breeding • S. L. Goodale

... lordship's meditations during the minutes after he had left Jimmy in the dining-room amounted to the realisation that the best mode of defence is attack. It is your man who knows how to play the bold game on occasion who wins. A duller schemer than Lord Wisbeach might have been content to be inactive after such a conversation as had just taken place between himself and Jimmy. His lordship, giving the matter the concentrated attention of his trained mind, had hit on a better plan, and he had come to the drawing-room now to put ...
— Piccadilly Jim • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... Curetes unsuccessful; nor were they able, although numerous, to remain without the wall. But when wrath, which swells the minds of others, though very prudent, within their breasts, came upon Meleager, for, enraged at heart with his dear mother Althaea, he remained inactive beside his wedded wife, fair Cleopatra, daughter of Marpessa, the handsome-footed child of Evenus and Idas, who was then the bravest of earthly men, and even lifted a bow against king Phoebus Apollo, ...
— The Iliad of Homer (1873) • Homer

... derisive shout, which, to their delight, was answered from within. No more silence, no more dead opposition: a living struggle, a glowing, raging fight; and Daniel thought he should be obliged to sit there still, leaning against the wall, inactive, while the strife and the action were going on in which he had ...
— Sylvia's Lovers — Complete • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... alterations in the soil. The pathogenic, or disease producing, power may be increased by similar, though not identical, alterations. The rapidity of their multiplication may be accelerated, or they may be compelled to lie dormant and inactive for a time; and, on the other hand, by exhausting the constituents of the soil upon which they depend for life, they may ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 810, July 11, 1891 • Various

... though silent, was not inactive, but the reverse. From the moment of seeing himself shut up—as it were, in a pen—he had given all his thoughts to how he might escape out of it. It needed none to tell him there was no chance front-wards ...
— The Free Lances - A Romance of the Mexican Valley • Mayne Reid

... tight, nothing fitting closely to the body, no belts of any kind. The French style of dress, uncomfortable and unhealthy for a man, is especially bad for children. The stagnant humours, whose circulation is interrupted, putrify in a state of inaction, and this process proceeds more rapidly in an inactive and sedentary life; they become corrupt and give rise to scurvy; this disease, which is continually on the increase among us, was almost unknown to the ancients, whose way of dressing and living protected them from ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

... the rest if it put to sea, but, as in Barrington's instructions, if he met a superior squadron he was to retire up Channel under the English coast and join hands with Howe. In spite of the fact that influenza was now raging in the fleet, he succeeded in holding the French inactive. Howe with the same difficulty to face was equally successful. The Dutch had put to sea, but returned immediately they knew of his movement, and cruising off the Texel, he held them there, and kept complete command of the North Sea till our ...
— Some Principles of Maritime Strategy • Julian Stafford Corbett

... designs forestalled, threw himself into the fortress of Nisibis, and there stood on the defensive. Ardaburius did not feel himself strong enough to invest the town; and for some time the two adversaries remained inactive, each watching the other. It was during this interval that (if we may credit Socrates) the Persian general sent a challenge to the Roman, inviting him to fix time and place for a trial of strength between the two armies. Ardaburius prudently declined the overture, remarking that the Romans ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire • George Rawlinson

... refusal of worship for things unworthy, or even for things merely conventional." Like FitzGerald, too, our friend is a lover of solitude; like him he shuns cities, gets his exhilaration from the common life about him; is inactive, easy-going, a loiterer and saunterer through life; and could say of himself as FitzGerald said, on describing his own uneventful days in the country: "Such is life, and I believe I have got hold of a good end of ...
— Our Friend John Burroughs • Clara Barrus

... Jacobins as they quitted their clubs, the tumultuous assemblies, the convocations to the patriotic ceremonies, fallacious fears as to the failure of provisions—kept the population of the city and faubourgs in a perpetual state of excitement, which suffered no one to remain inactive; indifference would have been considered treason; and it was necessary to feign enthusiasm in order to be in accordance with public opinion. Each fresh event quickened this feverish excitement, which the press ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... make him apply it to his eyes?" cried the doctor: "however, sitting inactive in wet cloaths would destroy a stouter man than Mr Delvile; but he forgot it, he says! which of you two young ladies could not have ...
— Cecilia vol. 2 - Memoirs of an Heiress • Frances (Fanny) Burney (Madame d'Arblay)

... quiet that day and the next. The horses had suffered so much, that they required two days of rest, and they themselves were not sorry to be inactive after their fatiguing journey over the desert. The cattle enjoyed the luxuriant pasture, and although the tracks of the lions were discovered very near to them, yet, as they had plenty of fuel and attended themselves to the fires, they had not ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat

... one twice: Of this, a last and poor resource, bereft, He to himself, unhappy guide! was left - And who shall say where guided? to what seats Of starving villany? of thieves and cheats? In that sad time of many a dismal scene Had he a witness, not inactive, been; Had leagued with petty pilferers, and had crept Where of each sex degraded numbers slept: With such associates he was long allied, Where his capacity for ill was tried, And that once lost, the wretch was cast aside, For now, though willing with the worst to act, ...
— The Borough • George Crabbe

... nothing," answered his uncle. "You know how the case stands; the complaint cannot be reached, and there is scarcely a probability of its becoming inactive. It may be an affair of days or weeks, or she may yet rally, and be spared to ...
— Henrietta's Wish • Charlotte M. Yonge

... graces of life and death. Lilla was silent in the helpless concentration of deadly fear; Mimi was all resolve and self-forgetfulness, so intent on the soul-struggle in which she was engaged that there was no possibility of any other thought. As for myself, the bonds of will which held me inactive seemed like bands of steel which numbed all my faculties, except sight and hearing. We seemed fixed in an impasse. Something must happen, though the power of guessing was inactive. As in a dream, I saw Mimi's hand ...
— The Lair of the White Worm • Bram Stoker

... of a temper to continue inactive in his camp, even if Hannibal had lain still. But when he saw the territories of his allies laid waste before his eyes, he thought it would reflect dishonour upon him, should he suffer Hannibal to ransack Italy without control, and even advance ...
— The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, • Charles Rollin

... and of little interest." The old ecclesiastic listened to his nephew's patriotic tirades, and even approved; Mme. de Buonaparte coldly disapproved. She would have preferred calmer, more efficient common sense. Not that her son was inactive in her behalf; on the contrary, he began a series of busy representations to the provincial officials which secured some good-will and even trifling favor to the family. But the results were otherwise unsatisfactory, for the mulberry money was ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. I. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... lace-making industry. This building, which is by the church, is, outside, merely one more decayed habitation. You pass within, past the little glass box of the custodian, whose small daughter is steering four inactive snails over the open page of a ledger, and ascend a flight of stairs, and behold you are in the midst of what seem to be thousands of girls in rows, each nursing her baby. On closer inspection the babies are revealed to be pillows held much as ...
— A Wanderer in Venice • E.V. Lucas

... whole the most purely inactive and vegetative of all insects, unless indeed we except a few very debased and degraded parasites. They fasten themselves early in life on to a particular shoot of a particular plant; they drink in its juices, ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen

... For I am long since weary of your storm Of carnage, and find, Hermod, in your life Something too much of war and broils, which make Life one perpetual fight, a bath of blood. Mine eyes are dizzy with the arrowy hail; Mine ears are stunn'd with blows, and sick for calm. Inactive therefore let me lie, in gloom, Unarm'd, inglorious; I attend the course Of ages, and my late return to light, In times less alien to a spirit mild, In new-recover'd seats, the happier day." He spake; and the fleet Hermod ...
— Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold • Matthew Arnold

... his case a serious one as yet," said he; "his feet are swollen, indeed, but that might soon be cured. However, his sedentary inactive life is so bad for a frame like his, and his diet is so unwholesome, that I am sorry to say the sudden development of some serious complaint is ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... battle: Still, however, they delayed the attack, but a party ran to each of our boats, and attempted to draw them on shore; this seemed to be the signal, for the people about us at the same time began to press in upon our line: Our situation was now become too critical for us to remain longer inactive, I therefore discharged my musket, which was loaded with small shot, at one of the forwardest, and Mr Banks and two of the men fired immediately afterwards: This made them fall back in some confusion, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... contrast with their perpetual murmurings and rebellions under Moses. Many reasons probably concurred in bringing about this change of tone. For one thing the long period of suspense was over; and to average sense-bound people there is no greater trial of faith and submission than waiting, inactive, for something that is to come. Now they are face to face with their enemies, and it is a great deal easier to fight than to expect; and their courage mounts higher as dangers come nearer. Then there were great ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... impatient passenger in the smoker, who found the stoppages at these wayside hamlets interminable, both in frequency and in the delay at each of them; and while the dawdling train remained inert, and the moments passed inactive, his eyes dilated and his hand clenched till the nails bit his palm; then, when the trucks groaned and the wheels crooned against the rails once more, he sank back in his seat with sighs of relief. Sometimes he would get up and pace the aisle until his companion reminded him that this was not ...
— The Gentleman From Indiana • Booth Tarkington

... was now also acting as aide-de-camp to Sir Robert Wilson. He was a delightful companion and a most gallant young officer, and a fast friendship became established between him and Frank, during the time the Russian army was remaining inactive, while Napoleon was wasting the precious time at Moscow, unable to bring himself to acknowledge the absolute failure of his plans caused by the refusal of the Russians to treat with him, after his occupation ...
— Through Russian Snows - A Story of Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow • G. A Henty

... "that action" must be sullied with no suggestion of a worldly motive; on the other hand, "that action," in itself, was highly justified, he had cast in his lot with "the actors," and he must stay there, inactive but publicly sharing the responsibility. "You are a gentleman - you will protect me!" cried the wounded old man, crawling towards him. "I will never lay a hand on you," said Hackston, and put his cloak about his mouth. It is an old ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson

... want of occupation, inoccupation[obs3]; idle hours, time hanging on one's hands, dolce far niente[It]; sinecure, featherbed, featherbedding, cushy job, no- show job; soft snap, soft thing. V. not do, not act, not attempt; be inactive &c. 683; abstain from doing, do nothing, hold, spare; not stir, not move, not lift a finger, not lift a foot, not lift a peg; fold one's arms, fold one's hands; leave alone, let alone; let be, let ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... the enemy's rear, McClellan was inactive in front. McClellan claimed he was to receive hourly word from Rosecrans during his progress through and up the rugged mountain, and not thus often hearing from him, he, in the presence of his officers, denounced the movement, and put upon Rosecrans ...
— Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 • Joseph Warren Keifer

... stay here as you propose," he said, "you will be arrested not later than tomorrow and haled to your death, if not butchered at sight. At most the centurion in charge might allow you an hour in which to commit suicide. But if you remain here inactive your death is certain, you ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... the reserves which till after one o'clock were stationed inactive behind Semenovsk, under heavy artillery fire. Toward two o'clock the regiment, having already lost more than two hundred men, was moved forward into a trampled oatfield in the gap between Semenovsk and the Knoll Battery, where ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... right to quit a life of such idleness as he was leading in the castle; for he fancied that he was making himself sorely missed by suffering himself to remain shut up and inactive amid the countless luxuries and enjoyments his hosts lavished upon him as a knight, and he felt too that he would have to render a strict account to heaven of that indolence and seclusion; and so one day he asked the duke and duchess to grant him permission to take his departure. They ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... Steve agreed. "It isn't really odd when you look at it that way. But you can bet the case isn't closed. It's just inactive, until something turns up. Remember there's no detective ...
— The Flying Stingaree • Harold Leland Goodwin

... young women thrown abruptly upon their own resources become social secretaries if their own social positions have insensibly prepared them for the position, and if they live in a city large enough to warrant this fancy but by no means inactive post. In Washington they are much in demand by Senators' and Congressmen's wives suddenly translated from a small town where the banker's lady hobnobbed with the prosperous undertaker's family, to a city where the laws of social ...
— The Living Present • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

... the liability to receive lively impressions, a distinctive feature of her sex, and the aptitude to attach importance to the usages by which she was surrounded, and which is necessarily greatest in those who lead secluded and inactive lives, rendered it additionally difficult for her mind to escape from the trammels of opinion, and to think with indifference of circumstances which all near her treated with high respect, or to which they attached a stigma allied to disgust. Had the case been reversed, had Sigismund been ...
— The Headsman - The Abbaye des Vignerons • James Fenimore Cooper

... protective system, and it was not likely that the business interests which profited from protection, which believed in its beneficent operation, and which had contributed generously to the Republican war-chest would remain inactive in the presence of an opportunity to revise ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... own dignity. One must have confidence, in order to give them confidence. Most of us have no idea what powers to meet new demands are inherent in our organs. We have within us capacities unknown even to ourselves, inactive, so long as they are not necessary, awake and efficient, as soon as there is need of them. They are reserves which most of the time we never call on. They are a hoard which we do not touch. Our resources and our power of life are greater than we imagine. The sudden loss ...
— Five Lectures on Blindness • Kate M. Foley

... whatever standard of comparison be taken, the limb-bones of the large lop-eared rabbits have not increased in length, though they have in weight, in full proportion to the other parts of the frame; and this, I presume, may be accounted for by the inactive life which during many generations they have spent. Nor has the scapula increased in length in due proportion to the increased ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin

... room to sit down in, not to move about in, for the levels of the floor were precarious, and a sudden step would easily disconcert those who tried to make a promenade of it. It was as inactive in tendency ...
— Daisy's Aunt • E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson

... their free and wise institutions. In countries where personal liberty is unknown, and the rights of person and property are curtailed, people do not exert themselves to improve their environments, but are content to remain quiet and inactive. ...
— America Through the Spectacles of an Oriental Diplomat • Wu Tingfang

... They drove with a slight list to leeward, and with a slow alternation of movement, first a short, sharp ascent and then a long downward glide that was very swift and pleasing. During these downward glides the propeller was inactive altogether. These ascents gave Graham a glorious sense of successful effort; the descents through the rarefied air were beyond all experience. He wanted never to ...
— The Sleeper Awakes - A Revised Edition of When the Sleeper Wakes • H.G. Wells

... I feel certain that what was going on in Hugh's case all the time was a keen exercise of observation. I have no doubt that his brain was receiving and gaining impressions of every kind, and that his mind was not really inactive—it was only unconsciously amassing material. He had a very quick and delighted perception of human temperament, of the looks, gestures, words, mannerisms, habits, and oddities of human beings. If Hugh had been born in a household professionally artistic, and ...
— Hugh - Memoirs of a Brother • Arthur Christopher Benson

... must feel, forced to remain at his desk with its encircling banks of instruments; holding all the network of his farflung activities centralized; his decisions, his commands in a hundred places almost simultaneously, while his body sat there inactive. ...
— Wandl the Invader • Raymond King Cummings

... in taking a fond farewell of the Rosebrooks, who have so nobly played their part, to the shame of those who stubbornly refuse to profit by their example. They played no inactive part in the final escape; but discretion forbids our disclosing its minuti. They sought to give unto others that liquid of life to which they owed their own prosperity and happiness; nor did selfish motive incite them to action. No; they sought peace and prosperity for ...
— Our World, or, The Slaveholders Daughter • F. Colburn Adams

... heard of the victories of James at Wark, at Etall, and at Ford; and then, that Norham castle had been taken; but later, news was whispered that while King James was dallying the time away with the wily Lady Heron, the army lay inactive. At length they heard the army had made post on the ridge that frowns over the Millfield Plain, and that brave Surrey, with a force from the South, had marched ...
— The Prose Marmion - A Tale of the Scottish Border • Sara D. Jenkins

... crowd of them upon the slopes, looking furtively at me. At last, hot and tired, I sat down to watch the place. But I was too restless to watch long; I am too Occidental for a long vigil. I could work at a problem for years, but to wait inactive for twenty-four ...
— The Time Machine • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... of Ecuador, and which, although belonging to Ecuador, all bear English names, bestowed upon them, it would appear, by the buccaneers of the 17th century; Albemarle Island makes up more than half of their area; they are volcanic in formation, and some of their 2000 craters are not yet inactive; their fauna is of peculiar scientific interest as exhibiting many species unknown elsewhere; besides the islands proper there is a vast number ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... he was to engage Mackay with the Highlanders alone, Dundee knew that he could not hope to keep them long together inactive. Provisions were running short. If they could not harry James's enemies, they would make free with their own. Dundee was particularly anxious to give no cause of offence to those clans whose neutrality he hoped to be able to turn into friendship. Already a serious prospect ...
— Claverhouse • Mowbray Morris

... which he underwent undermined his health, and he was compelled to remain for a time inactive at the mineral waters of Euzet. This retirement proved useful. He began to think over what might be done to revivify the Protestant religion in France. Remember that he was at that time only nineteen years of age! It might be thought presumptuous ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... welcome, though he be a usurper. Thus it came to pass, that Henry of Bourbon was rejected by the despots, while Louis Napoleon has received from the Czar an autograph letter of approval, and from Austria complimentary gifts. Will the United States remain inactive, while free institutions are systematically extinguished? Can they look on indifferently, because seventy years ago it was a wise doctrine, appropriate to their childhood, not ...
— Select Speeches of Kossuth • Kossuth

... had deserted the stage after the publication of his folio and up to the end of the reign of King James, he was far from inactive; for year after year his inexhaustible inventiveness continued to contribute to the masquing and entertainment at court. In "The Golden Age Restored," Pallas turns the Iron Age with its attendant evils into statues which sink out of sight; in "Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue," ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson

... latter, bases; (3) that acids and bases differ as negative and positive elements differ, each being united with O and H, and yet producing compounds of a directly opposite character; (4) that salts are really compounded of acids and bases. This explains why salts are usually inactive and neutral in character, while acids and bases are active agents. Thus we see why the most positive or the most negative elements in general have the strongest affinities, while those intermediate in the list are inactive, ...
— An Introduction to Chemical Science • R.P. Williams

... on, remain, persist; intervene; elapse &c. 109; hold out. take time, take up time, fill time, occupy time. pass time, pass away time, spend time, while away time, consume time, talk against time; tide over; use time, employ time; seize an opportunity &c. 134; waste time &c. (be inactive) 683. Adj. continuing &c. v.; on foot; permanent &c. (durable) 110. Adv. while, whilst, during, pending; during the time, during the interval; in the course of, at that point, at that point in time; for the time being, day by day; in the time of, when; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... confident they had him beaten as a candidate for the Senate. He had done certain things that rendered him unpopular with his constituents. So certain were they that they did not think it necessary to make an effort, and, in consequence, remained inactive. Not so with Lane. He quietly waited until a few days before the choosing of the Legislature that was to decide on his case, and then he entered on a lightning canvass. Arranging for relays of fast ...
— The Abolitionists - Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights • John F. Hume

... the vagrant eye. Against such it is quite unnecessary that I should warn you; they usually give you sufficient notice themselves. The trifler can scarcely amuse you for an evening. The company of a lady who has nothing to say but what is commonplace, whose inactive mind never for once stumbles upon an idea of its own, must be dull, as a matter of course. You can learn nothing from her, unless it be the folly of a vacant mind. Come away, lest ...
— The Young Man's Guide • William A. Alcott

... attempt under that sepulchral robe, that convict's dress, which must cover her for a whole year? A year! She must remain a year imprisoned in that black attire, inactive and vanquished. For a whole year she would feel herself growing old, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, under that sheath of crape! What would she be in a year if her poor ailing body continued to alter thus under ...
— Strong as Death • Guy de Maupassant

... and inactive, or so weakened as to secrete but a ropy, thin and glairy fluid, having few or none of the characteristics of Vital Fluid. Should the individual suffering this way—and either careless or unfortunate enough to go uncured—have offspring, they will assuredly ...
— Manhood Perfectly Restored • Unknown

... eager welcome, and in spite of the risks they would have to encounter, the four men were overjoyed at hearing of the business in hand, clearly showing that they were tired of their monotonous inactive life. ...
— To The West • George Manville Fenn

... necessary for efficiency is exercised, and that with practically unanimous concurrence, is wholly unreasonable. A man who cannot yield allegiance to the country in which he lives should either be silent and inactive or go to some country where his ...
— A Backward Glance at Eighty • Charles A. Murdock

... over those who would not obey him, especially on the Karaites, excluding them from the Hebrew community, and refusing them the friendship and help of their tribe. Under such a blow the existence of the inhabitants of Szybow, already poor, sad, and inactive, was made altogether unbearable. The descendants of Hazairan rulers, heretics, constituting, as always, a great minority of the population, exposed to aversion and hatred, oppressed and poor, left the place which had given them shelter for a certain time, carrying with them in their hearts their ...
— An Obscure Apostle - A Dramatic Story • Eliza Orzeszko

... (velut agmine facto qua data porta ruunt) than the awfully sublime revelation vouchsafed to the prophet Ezekiel. And how unworthy and degrading is that representation of the {161} heavenly host, resting inactive, and sparing themselves from toil, until they witnessed Christ's descent and humiliation; and then when chid and put to shame and rebuke, and mutually roused to action by their fellows, coming down to visit this earth, and rushing through ...
— Primitive Christian Worship • James Endell Tyler

... monstrous or are shown accomplishing impossible things, they cannot escape a certain aspect of the ridiculous. I have in mind Rodin's "Man and His Thought." If the man were only represented fashioning the figure with his hands, his hands guided by his thought; but the hands are inactive, and the figure grows by thought alone! Or consider "The Hand of God" by the same artist. To say that we are in the hands of God is a good metaphorical way of expressing our dependence upon the Destiny that shapes our ends; but it is another thing to exhibit us as actually ...
— The Principles Of Aesthetics • Dewitt H. Parker

... issue of their contest with evil beasts, or evil spirits. All such lower sources of excitement are to be closed to you; your interest is to be in the thoughts involved by the fact of the war; and in the beauty or rightness of form, whether active or inactive. I have to work out this subject with you afterwards, and to compare with the pure Greek method of thought that of modern dramatic passion, ingrafted on it, as typically in Turner's contest of Apollo and ...
— Aratra Pentelici, Seven Lectures on the Elements of Sculpture - Given before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term, 1870 • John Ruskin

... and leaders: Brunei National United Party (inactive), Anak Hasanuddin, chairman; Brunei National Democratic Party (the first legal political party and now banned) Abdul Latif bin Abdul ...
— The 1990 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... that the crystals do not have some action on light. Most usually, when the two Nicol prisms are crossed so as to cause extinction, the crystals present the appearance shown at D. That is to say, while the central portion is totally inactive there are seen on the margins zones ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 286 - June 25, 1881 • Various

... (6 are inactive; the active station is in Kabul), FM 1, shortwave 1 (broadcasts in Pushtu, Dari, Urdu, ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... deficiency of stimulus in those fibres, which are not subject to perpetual stimulus, as the locomotive muscles, is not succeeded by accumulation of sensorial power; these therefore are more liable to become permanently inactive after a diminution of stimulus; as in strokes of the palsy, this may be called inactivity from defect ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... Compact was in full force. The Bourbons of France were determined to gain more than they had got; the Bourbons of Spain were eager to recover what they had lost. The genius and daring of Frederick of Prussia were not likely to remain inactive. As we have seen, the war between England and France raged on in India without regard to treaties and truces on the European continent. There was, in fact, a great trial of strength going on, and it had to be fought out. England and France had yet another stage to struggle ...
— A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

... Book" there is another gate story amongst the notes on the Gordon Riots. "We youngsters," says the aged lawyer, "at the Temple determined that we would not remain inactive during such times; so we introduced ourselves into a troop to assist the military. We armed ourselves as well as we could, and next morning we drew up in the court ready to follow out a troop of soldiers who were on guard. When, however, the soldiers had passed through ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury



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