PASSIVE RESISTANCE Definition & Meaning

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passive resistance

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.

passive resistance

noun

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

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 .)

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Other �y��vlog Forms

passive re·sister noun

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of passive resistance¹

First recorded in 1880–85

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

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

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Then he goes into a passive resistance mode.

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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.

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The nonviolence of the civil rights movement had nothing to do with “passive resistance.”

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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.

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