passive resistance

American  

noun

1. opposition to a government or to specific governmental laws by the use of noncooperation and other nonviolent methods, as economic boycotts and protest marches.

---

passive resistance British  

noun

1. resistance to a government, law, etc, made without violence, as by fasting, demonstrating peacefully, or refusing to cooperate

---

passive resistance Cultural  

1. A technique of demonstrating opposition to a government's activities simply by not cooperating with them. It is particularly associated with Mahatma Gandhi, who opposed violent revolution in his own country's fight for independence. (Compare civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance.)

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• passive resister
  noun

Etymology

Origin of passive resistance

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Let's hope we see more passive resistance coming from the rest of the federal employees.

From Salon • Dec. 13, 2024

Then he goes into a passive resistance mode.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 2, 2024

She was also reading James Baldwin, listening to the news, and seeing American racial politics shift from civil rights-era passive resistance to a newly assertive Black power.

From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2024

The United States was different, too, deprived of the eloquence and passive resistance against racism that King espoused and burdened with the war in Vietnam for five more years.

From Washington Post • Apr. 4, 2023

The Negro’s feeling of utter hopelessness is here replaced by a determined spirit of passive resistance.

From "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin