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Definition of passive adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

passive

adjective
 
/ˈpæsɪv/
 
/ˈpæsɪv/
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  1. accepting what happens or what people do without trying to change anything or oppose them
    • He played a passive role in the relationship.
    • a passive observer of events
    • She wore a passive expression on her face as if she didn’t care what happened.
    Extra Examples
    • Watching TV is a completely passive activity.
    • We are passive recipients of information from the world around us.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • seem
    • become
    adverb
    • extremely
    • fairly
    • very
    See full entry
  2. (grammar) connected with the form of a verb used when the subject is affected by the action of the verb, for example He was bitten by a dog. compare activeTopics Languageb1
  3. Word Originlate Middle English (in sense (2), also in the sense ‘(exposed to) suffering, acted on by an external agency’): from Latin passivus, from pass- ‘suffered’, from the verb pati.
See passive in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee passive in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
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