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passive resistance
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noun
opposition to a government or to specific governmental laws by the use of noncooperation and other nonviolent methods, as economic boycotts and protest marches.
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Compare civil disobedience, noncooperation (def. 2).
Origin of passive resistance
First recorded in 1880–85
OTHER WORDS FROM passive resistance
pas·sive re·sist·er, nounWords nearby passive resistance
passive-matrix, passive movement, passive noun, passive obedience, passive reason, passive resistance, passive restraint, passive safety, passive smoke, passive smoking, passive transfer
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
How to use passive resistance in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for passive resistance
passive resistance
noun
resistance to a government, law, etc, made without violence, as by fasting, demonstrating peacefully, or refusing to cooperate
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
Cultural definitions for passive resistance
passive resistance
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.)
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.