- 1accepting 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. Oxford Collocations Dictionary verbsbe, seem, become, … adverbextremely, 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. is a passive sentence compare active See related entries: Grammar 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.Extra examples TV is a completely passive activity. The heroine plays an essentially passive role in the drama. She wore a passive expression on her face as if she didn’t care what happened. Throughout this time I was simply a passive observer of events. We are passive recipients of information from the world around us.
Check pronunciation: passive
