Meaning

3 senses
  1. (not comparable)Inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.

    Grass goes dormant during the winter, waiting for spring before it grows again.

    The bank account was dormant; there had been no transactions in months.

    schlafend, inaktiv

    неакти́вныйneaktívnyj, спя́щийspjáščij, усну́вшийusnúvšij

  2. (not comparable)In a sleeping posture; distinguished from couchant.

    a lion dormant

  3. (not comparable)Leaning.

More definitions
  • (of e.g. volcanoes) not erupting and not extinct
  • in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation
  • lying with head on paws as if sleeping
  • inactive but capable of becoming active

Examples

17 sentences
  1. The alien organism has become dormant.

  2. Volcanoes can be active, dormant, or extinct.

    ruВулканы бывают действующими, спящими и потухшими. — Wezel

    deEs gibt aktive, schlafende und erloschene Vulkane. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

  3. The medlar tree started to go dormant.

  4. Nearly all plants go dormant during the winter.

  5. A simple message can rekindle a dormant friendship.

Translations

6 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
inactive, asleep, suspended:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
inactive, asleep, suspended:

Origin

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dormiēns, present participle of dormiō (“

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin dormiēns, present participle of dormiō (“to sleep”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Synonyms

6 synonyms
inactive, suspended:quiescent
Close in meaning
  • (of e.g. volcanoes) not erupting and not extinct:inactive
  • in a condition of biological rest or suspended animation:hibernatingtorpid
  • lying with head on paws as if sleeping:sleeping
  • inactive but capable of becoming active:abeyant

Antonyms

4 antonyms
antonym(s) of “inactivesuspended”activeB1extinctB1

Word family

19 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
dormant — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto