mindmap root((空闲)) inactive applies to anyone or anything not in action or in use or at work: a playwright who's been ~ for several years. idle applies to persons, their powers, or implements that are not busy or occupied: tractors were ~ in the fields. inert as applied to things implies powerlessness to move or to affect other things: ~ ingredients in drugs; as applied to persons it suggests an inherent or habitual indisposition to activity: an ~ citizenry uninterested in social change. passive implies immobility or lack of normally expected response to an external force or influence and often suggests deliberate submissiveness or self-control: a ~ individual incapable of strong emotion. supine applies only to persons and commonly implies abject or cowardly inertia or passivity as a result of apathy or indolence: remained ~ in the face of verbal abuse.