adverb

• 1In an accepting manner, without active response or resistance.

  ‘we don't have to sit passively by while others decide our fate’

  More example sentences

  • ‘they will not passively accept defeat’
  • ‘You have to passively hope that some reviewer notices you and plays the game.’
  • ‘It proposes a numberless succession of sons passively tormented by their fathers' ghosts.’
  • ‘She does not fulfil his fantasy of a woman loyal to men or passively victimized by them.’
  • ‘Amelia recalls Fielding's passively good wife in the eponymous novel.’
  • ‘His films challenge the spectator to think about, rather than passively accept, that which is shown on the screen.’
  • ‘He listens passively as his friend rambles on.’
  • ‘They simply cannot fathom how an African-American woman could live as passively as Celie does.’
  • ‘He appears to be lying low, until he can passively take advantage of the situation.’
  • ‘As they sit passively in front of their TV sets, they are barraged with redundant images.’
  • ‘He is reduced to passively observing the life teeming around him.’

• 2Grammar
  Using the passive voice.

  ‘it is passively expressed that he was "carried up"’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Most writing authorities agree that the active voice is both more engaging and easier to read than passively constructed writing.’
  • ‘if you've never understood what it means to write actively or passively, stick with us and learn how to turn cludgy passive sentences into bright, active ones.’
  • ‘Many people write passively by default, as it feels more natural or academic to them.’
  • ‘Intransitive Italian verbs such as arrivare cannot be used passively because they do not take a direct object.’
  • ‘The only caveat with venire is that it cannot be used passively with compound tenses.’
  • ‘I have a habit of writing passively.’
  • ‘He taught me grammar—or, passively, grammar was taught to me.’
  • ‘The present participle is often used passively.’
  • ‘Passively stated, Gaul was conquered by Caesar.’
  • ‘The intransitive verb may be used passively with the preposition as an adverbial adjunct, as in 'I despair of success'.’

• 3From a transmitter or target rather than by generating a signal.

  ‘some cell phones passively receive data from geosynchronous satellites’

  More example sentences

  • ‘This process does not flood the network with active scanning, but gathers and processes this information passively.’
  • ‘It constantly and passively monitors network assets for potential vulnerabilities and then alerts administrators in real time to anomalous behavior.’
  • ‘This prevents strangers from passively scanning the area and receiving your network's broadcasts.’
  • ‘One property that might be useful is the ability to update the table passively, requiring periodic lookups to be done in order to refresh the table.’
  • ‘This popular helper automatically builds scripts by passively observing normal system use.’
  • ‘A just-released website allows supporters to passively download DVD-quality video from the campaign.’
  • ‘The custom software passively logs the latitude and longitude, the signal strength, the network name, and other vital stats.’
  • ‘It passively monitors the transmissions of a wireless LAN, computing the encryption password when enough packets have been gathered.’
  • ‘He would like to be able to passively identify the various scanning tools hackers and others use to find vulnerable wireless networks.’
  • ‘Because there's no way to trace people who are passively receiving their signal, the company has turned to a new strategy.’

  1. 3.1By making use of incident sunlight as an energy source.
     ‘passively heated homes’
     More example sentences

     • ‘The temperature under the new roof is passively controlled.’
     • ‘Methods of passively collecting solar energy include solar ovens and well-planned indoor heating techniques.’
     • ‘Keeping the house well-insulated can make good use of the sun's warmth passively and reduce one's reliance on electricity from the city.’
     • ‘These walls are designed to harness the energy of the sun to passively reduce heating costs in the home.’
     • ‘Builders today use similar methods for passively capturing solar energy.’
     • ‘We passively use the heat of the sun's rays in our everyday life.’
     • ‘Isolated gain involves utilizing solar energy to passively move heat from or to the living space using a fluid (such as water) or air by natural convection or forced convection.’
     • ‘Clear or translucent doors take the captured light and passively reflect it further inside.’
     • ‘Solar energy can be exploited passively by taking heat and light from the sun directly without using any appliances to convert it to other forms of energy.’
     • ‘Technologies which passively absorb the energy of the sun and have no moving components are referred to as passive solar technologies.’