1 I mean young Nicholas Rostov, who with his enthusiasm could not bear to remain inactive and has left the university to join the army.
2 Within half an hour adjutants had been sent in various directions with orders which showed that the Russian troops, who had hitherto been inactive, would also soon have to meet the enemy.
3 Prince Andrew's regiment was among the reserves which till after one o'clock were stationed inactive behind Semenovsk, under heavy artillery fire.
4 But such distractions lasted only a moment, and for eight hours the men had been inactive, without food, in constant fear of death, and their pale and gloomy faces grew ever paler and gloomier.
5 During the national war he was inactive because he was not needed.
6 The suddenness of the flight of his guide, and the wild cries of the pursuers, caused Heyward to remain fixed, for a few moments, in inactive surprise.
7 He was active and observing, I dreamy and inactive.
8 During these eight years my life was uniform: but not unhappy, because it was not inactive.
9 Let not a single worker remain inactive here.
Les Misérables 5 By Victor HugoContext Highlight In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XVIII—THE VULTURE BECOME PREY 10 But to be waiting so long in inaction, and waiting only for evil, had been dreadful.
11 As to the arrest of John Mitton, the valet, it was a council of despair as an alternative to absolute inaction.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan DoyleContext Highlight In XIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN 12 Condemned to inaction and a state of constant restlessness and suspense, I rowed about in my boat, and waited, waited, waited, as I best could.
13 But this sudden outbreaking of temper as quickly subsided in the still and sullen restraint they most affected in their moments of inaction.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore CooperContext Highlight In CHAPTER 27 14 At the crest of the hill at Inchicore sightseers had gathered in clumps to watch the cars careering homeward and through this channel of poverty and inaction the Continent sped its wealth and industry.
15 But Ivanhoe was like the war-horse of that sublime passage, glowing with impatience at his inactivity, and with his ardent desire to mingle in the affray of which these sounds were the introduction.