PASSIVE in a Sentence

Learn PASSIVE from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For PASSIVE, below is one of 56 sentences:
There was therefore no hope but in passive fortitude, and in that strong reliance on Heaven natural to great and generous characters.

Free Online Vocabulary Test
K12, SAT, GRE, IELTS, TOEFL
 Input your word:
Want to search a word in classic works?
Search Classic Quotes
 Meanings and Examples of PASSIVE
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
passive
 a.  lacking in energy or will; peacefully resistant in response to injustice
Classic Sentence: (40 in 3 pages)
1  The words passive obedience indicate this.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: CHAPTER III—THE ANKLE-CHAIN MUST HAVE UNDERGONE A CERTAIN...
2  The sufferings of the first six years of her life had instilled something passive into her nature.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 5: CHAPTER I—THE ZIGZAGS OF STRATEGY
3  Their submission to the prioress is absolute and passive.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 6: CHAPTER II—THE OBEDIENCE OF MARTIN VERGA
4  Paris begins with the lounger and ends with the street Arab, two beings of which no other city is capable; the passive acceptance, which contents itself with gazing, and the inexhaustible initiative; Prudhomme and Fouillou.
Les Misérables 3 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER IV—HE MAY BE OF USE
5  This is the case with passive natures.
Les Misérables 3 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: CHAPTER VIII—TWO DO NOT MAKE A PAIR
6  In the mysterious balance of this Jean Valjean which the pensive Marius struck, he admitted the active principle, he admitted the passive principle, and he tried to reach a balance.
Les Misérables 5 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 7: CHAPTER II—THE OBSCURITIES WHICH A REVELATION CAN CONTAIN
7  Then, accustomed to passive obedience, he jumped down from the terrace, ran toward the lane, and at the end of twenty paces met d'Artagnan, who, having seen all, was coming to him.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 30 D'ARTAGNAN AND THE ENGLISHMAN
8  Lily had no mind for the vagabond life of the poor relation, and to adapt herself to Mrs. Peniston she had, to some degree, to assume that lady's passive attitude.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 3
9  Sometimes she thought it was because Mrs. Peniston had been too passive, and again she feared it was because she herself had not been passive enough.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 3
10  He sat still and passive, his head resting against the back of the wooden rocking-chair, his hands relaxed upon the arms.
My Antonia By Willa Cather
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1. The Shimerdas: XII
11  A few had straggled among the conquered columns, where they stalked in sullen discontent; attentive, though, as yet, passive observers of the moving multitude.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 17
12  The politic captain of the Canadas had deemed it wiser to submit to entertain a passive friend, than by any acts of ill-judged severity to convert him into an open enemy.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 28
13  Perhaps, however, the manner of the scout would not have been so passive, had he fully comprehended the language in which the preceding dialogue had been conducted.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 29
14  A curious passive inattention had such possession of her, that the presence of her little sister in the room did not attract her notice for some time.
Hard Times By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER I
15  There was therefore no hope but in passive fortitude, and in that strong reliance on Heaven natural to great and generous characters.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXIV
Example Sentence: (16 in 2 pages)
1  They tried to achieve their aims by passive resistance.
2  His passive attitude made things easier for me.
3  Jeremy's passive attitude was hard to fathom.
4  In spite of my efforts, the boy remained passive.
5  An individual who is passive, utterly apathetic and withdrawn from community life is no true citizen.
6  Blind children tend to be more passive in this area of motor development than sighted children.
7  If we lag behind other nations in economy, we will be thrown into a passive position.
8  She hates playing the sweet, passive women that audiences identify her with.
9  The normal word order is reversed in passive sentences.
10  Do not be a passive observer in your life.
11  He's very passive in the relationship.
12  Kathy seems to take a very passive role in the relationship.
13  Mahatma Gandhi urged his followers to pursue a program of passive resistance as he felt that it was more effective than violence.
14  It doesn't assume that people need necessarily remain passive when confronted by what appears to be the juggernaut of history.
15  I was pleased to have done something; trivial, transitory though the deed was, it was yet an active thing, and I was weary of an existence all passive.