What does dormant mean?

Definitions for dormant
ˈdɔr məntdor·mant

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word dormant.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. dormant, hibernating(a), torpidadjective

    in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation

    "dormant buds"; "a hibernating bear"; "torpid frogs"

  2. dormant, inactiveadjective

    (of e.g. volcanos) not erupting and not extinct

    "a dormant volcano"

  3. dormant(ip), sleepingadjective

    lying with head on paws as if sleeping

  4. abeyant, dormantadjective

    inactive but capable of becoming active

    "her feelings of affection are dormant but easily awakened"

Wiktionary

  1. dormantadjective

    Inactive, asleep, suspended.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Dormantadjective

    Etymology: dormant, French.

    He a dragon! if he be, ’tis a very peaceful one: I can insure his anger is dormant; or should he seem to rouse, ’tis well lashing him, and he will sleep like a top. William Congreve, Old Batchelor.

    If a lion were the coat of Judah, yet were it not a lion rampant, but rather couchant and dormant. Thomas Browne, Vulg. Err.

    With this radius he is said to strike and kill his prey, for which he lies, as it were, dormant, ’till it swims within his reach. Nehemiah Grew, Musæum.

    There were other dormant musters of soldiers throughout all parts of the realm, that were put in readiness, but not drawn together. Francis Bacon, War with Spain.

    It would be prudent to reserve these privileges dormant, never to be produced but upon great occasions. Jonathan Swift.

    Old dormant windows must confess
    Her beams: their glimmering spectacles,
    Struck with the splendor of her face,
    Do th’ office of a burning-glass. John Cleveland.

ChatGPT

  1. dormant

    Dormant typically refers to a state of temporary inactivity, resting, or lying dormant. It is often used to describe a condition or state where something is temporarily asleep, inactive, or not currently functioning but has the potential to become active again in the future. This can apply to various areas such as biology, businesses, volcanoes, or legal rights.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Dormantadjective

    sleeping; as, a dormant animal; hence, not in action or exercise; quiescent; at rest; in abeyance; not disclosed, asserted, or insisted on; as, dormant passions; dormant claims or titles

  2. Dormantadjective

    in a sleeping posture; as, a lion dormant; -- distinguished from couchant

  3. Dormantadjective

    a large beam in the roof of a house upon which portions of the other timbers rest or " sleep."

  4. Etymology: [See Dormant, a.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Dormant

    dor′mant, adj. sleeping: at rest: not used, in abeyance (as a title): in a sleeping posture: (archit.) leaning.—n. a crossbeam: a joist.—n. Dor′mancy, quiescence.—ns. Dor′mer-win′dow, a vertical window, esp. of a sleeping-room (formerly called dormer), on the sloping roof of a house; Dormi′tion, sleeping.—adj. Dor′mitive, causing sleep (of medicine), as opium.—ns. Dor′mitory, a large sleeping-chamber with many beds; Dor′mouse, a small rodent intermediate between the squirrel and the mouse, so called because torpid in winter:—pl. Dor′mice; Dor′tour (Spens.) a dormitory. [Fr. dormir—L. dormīre, to sleep.]

Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms

  1. dormant

    In mine warfare, the state of a mine during which a time delay feature in a mine prevents it from being actuated.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. dormant

    (Fr.). Sleeping. In heraldic representation, an animal dormant has its head resting on its fore-paws, whereas an animal couchant has its head erect.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of dormant in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of dormant in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of dormant in a Sentence

  1. Malcolm X:

    I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke in me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.

  2. Hari Shankar:

    Cobras generally do not bite unless they are highly provoked. And after 8 p.m. they're generally dormant.

  3. Dr Schulze-Makuch:

    In the past, researchers have found dying organisms near the surface and remnants of DNA but this is really the first time that anyone has been able to identify a persistent form of life living in the soil of the Atacama Desert, we believe these microbial communities can lay dormant for hundreds or even thousands of years in conditions very similar to what you would find on a planet like Mars and then come back to life when it rains.

  4. Lakshheish M Patel:

    Stock market has become so boring for the last 1 week that traders feel that it is going nowhere as there is hardly any movement almost in dormant sleepy mood

  5. Erin Kara:

    Tidal disruption events offer us this rare view at the most common kind of supermassive black hole in the universe— these so-called dormant supermassive black holes, tidal disruption events, where the stellar debris causes the formation of a temporary accretion disk, offers us a way to probe this population of supermassive black holes.

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Translations for dormant

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"dormant." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Dec. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dormant>.

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