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passive obedience

British  

noun

  1. unquestioning obedience to authority

  2. the surrender of a person's will to another person

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

Had they lived in our own time, the charismatic despots of the 20th century would equally have posed, to Montaigne and La Boétie, the threat of passive obedience.

From The Guardian Feb. 10, 2012

The doctrine of the Atonement also has two parts: the active obedience of Christ atoning for man's sense of failure and the passive obedience of Christ to allay man's fear of the consequences .

From Time Magazine Archive

I picked up the first box and turned to see Green still studying me, and I quickly rearranged my face into one of passive obedience.

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

It is at least more honourable to resist popular prejudice than to yield to it a passive obedience; and what we can ascertain it would be a dereliction of truth to conceal.

From Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 by Disraeli, Isaac

His natural patrons may have looked askance at his independent attitude, so alien to the passive obedience preached by Fletcher.

From Philip Massinger by Cruickshank, A. H.

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