1. receiving or subjected to an action without responding or initiating an action in return: the mind viewed as a passive receptacle for sensory experience. see synonyms at inactive.
2. accepting or submitting without objection or resistance; submissive: a passive acceptance of one's fate.
3. existing, conducted, or experienced without active or concerted effort: "although tick paralysis is a reportable disease in washington, surveillance is passive, and only 10 cases were reported during 1987-1995” ( U.S. department of health and human services). "[many parents believe] that computers are educational and, at the least, less passive than television” ( Tamar Lewin).
4. of, relating to, or being certain bonds or shares that do not bear financial interest.
5. of, relating to, or being a solar heating or cooling system that uses no external mechanical power.
6. grammar of, relating to, or being a verb form or voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject is the object of the action or the effect of the verb. for example, in the sentence they were impressed by his manner, were impressed is in the passive voice.
7. chemistry unreactive except under special or extreme conditions; inert.
8. electronics exhibiting no gain or contributing no energy: a passive circuit element.
9. psychology relating to or characteristic of an inactive or submissive role in a relationship, especially a sexual relationship.
10. grammar the passive voice.
11. grammar A verb or construction in the passive voice.
12. one that is submissive or inactive. often used in the plural: "and the rest of us, we passives of the world, proceeded . . . as if nothing untoward had happened” ( martin gottfried).

1. being subjected to an action without producing a reaction.
2. taking no action.
3. being in the passive voice.
4. being inactive and submissive in a relationship, especially in a sexual one.
5. not participating in management.
6. the passive voice of verbs.
7. A form of a verb that is in the passive voice.

1. not active, but acted upon; suffering or receiving impressions or influences.
2. receiving or enduring without either active sympathy or active resistance; without emotion or excitement; patient; not opposing; unresisting
3. inactive; inert; unreactive; not showing strong affinity.
4. designating certain morbid conditions, as hemorrhage or dropsy, characterized by relaxation of the vessels and tissues, with deficient vitality and lack of reaction in the affected tissues.

1. suffering; not acting; inactive; receiving or capable of receiving impressions from external objects.
2. receptive; unresisting; not opposing; receiving or suffering without resistance: as, passive obedience; passive submission to the laws.
3. in grammar, expressive of the suffering or enduring of some action, or the being affected by some action: applied to a derivative mode of conjugation, by which that which is the object of the other or “active” form is made the subject of the enduring of the verbal action: thus, lydia a me amatur, ‘lydia is loved by me,’ is corresponding passive to ego Lydiam amo, ‘I love lydia.’

1. lacking in energy or will
2. the voice used to indicate that the grammatical subject of the verb is the recipient (not the source) of the action denoted by the verb
3. expressing that the subject of the sentence is the patient of the action denoted by the verb
4. peacefully resistant in response to injustice