quiescence

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“
In the girl, quiescence was the natural outcome of womanly reserve; in the Boy, it would have been mere affectation.

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Definitions (5)

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  1. The state or quality of being quiescent or inactive; rest; repose; inactivity; the state of a thing without motion or agitation: as, the quiescence of a volcano. 'Tis not unlikely that he [Adam] had as clear a perception of the earth's motion as we think we have of its quiescence. Glanville, Vanity of Dogmatizing, i. It is not enough that we are stimulated to pleasure or to pain, we must lapse into muscular quiescence to realize either. A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 149.
  2. In philology, silence; the condition of not being heard in pronunciation: as, the quiescence of a letter.
  3. In biology, quietude or inactivity; a state of animal life approaching torpidity, but in which the animal is capable of some motion, and may receive food: it is observed among insects during either hibernation or pupation, and in many other animals both higher and lower in the scale than these.

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Examples (50)

  • But the early autumn brought an event which abruptly shattered his quiescence, and called forth, presently, the most intimately personal poem of his later years. —  Robert Browning
  • The inclination determined from the X-ray eclipse duration in quiescence, the rotational velocity of the companion star and the semi-amplitude of the radial velocity curve determined through optical spectroscopy, yield the neutron star mass. —  CiteULike: Everyone's library
  • While Suzman was critical of the SAJBD's political quiescence, her thinking in regard to the relationship between her political career and her Jewish identity was, ironically, consistent with the SAJBD's view. —  news.newamericamedia.org
  • During quiescence, astronomers will observe X-rays emitted from the surface of the neutron star (as opposed to the flares), so direct measurements can be made of the neutron star. —  Universe Today
  • But a necessary precondition for this initial quiescence was the fortuitous happenstance that, in that term, the Court did not face (or managed to sidestep) cases involving abortion, race, school prayer, employment discrimination, the death penalty, and states 'rights - that is, the very kinds of cases that had fueled the ongoing civil war in our legal culture. —  FindLaw Writ - Recent Articles
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Late Latin quiescentia, rest, quiet, from Latin quiescen(t-)s, present participle of quiescere, repose, keep quiet: see quiescent.
 

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