Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lying asleep or as if asleep; inactive.
- adj. Latent but capable of being activated: "a harrowing experience which . . . lay dormant but still menacing” ( Charles Jackson).
- adj. Temporarily quiescent: a dormant volcano. See Synonyms at inactive, latent.
- adj. In a condition of biological rest or inactivity characterized by cessation of growth or development and the suspension of many metabolic processes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. A beam; a sleeper: formerly also dormond, dormant-tree. Also dormer. Halliwell.
- n. 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.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Arch.) A large beam in the roof of a house upon which portions of the other timbers rest or “ sleep.”
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lying with head on paws as if sleeping
- adj. in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
- adj. (of e.g. volcanos) not erupting and not extinct
- adj. inactive but capable of becoming active
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dormiēns, present participle of dormiō ("I sleep"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French, from present participle of dormir, to sleep, from Latin dormīre. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“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
“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
“How long they will remain dormant is anybody's guess.”
“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.”
“Clause 86 will remain dormant until the government chooses to enact it by order-in-council.”
“But this side of her nature had lain dormant through the years, waiting for the mate to appear.”
“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
“The president was faced with a sudden renewal of labor-management conflicts that had lain dormant during the war years, severe shortages in housing and consumer products, and widespread dissatisfaction with inflation, which at one point hit six percent in a single month.”
“Called “La Stupenda,” she combined the heft of a Wagnerian singer with the agility and upper register of a coloratura soprano, leading to powerful interpretations of great bel canto roles that had lain dormant for decades -- following in the wake of Maria Callas, who had spearheaded their initial revival.”
“In particular, they spread deadly explosives over a large area which remain dormant on the ground.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dormant’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT words
tergiversate, cymotrichous, vigilance, wince, consternation, cower, neutralize, euphony, cacophony, misanthrope, bibliophile, kleptomania and 81 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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List of Heraldry Terms
Words and phrases used in blazoning heraldic devices, along with names and other terms associated with the art and science.
Other similar lists can be found on Wordnik, especially that...seiant, duciper, bourdon, pouch, scrip, staff, ananas, besant d'argent, roundle, roundel, argent, allocamelus and 743 more...
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jagosaurus's favorites
Words I like mostly because of the way they sound and feel.
ticonderoga, petulance, snark, estimable, chickahominy, feline, gezellig, gneiss, shit, willy-nilly, shelter, coda and 366 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
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Heraldry
azure, gules, sable, vert, purpure, or, argent, ermine, vair, charge, ordinary, cross and 118 more...
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just words.
coquette, solecism, peripherally, recrudescence, viscid, turpitude, sententious, light-heeled, interminably, unflappable, palpably, solicitous and 215 more...
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