dormant
adjective
[ ˈdɔːm(ə)nt ]
• (of an animal) having normal physical functions suspended or slowed down for a period of time; in or as if in a deep sleep.
• "dormant butterflies"
Similar:
asleep,
sleeping,
slumbering,
resting,
reposing,
drowsing,
comatose,
supine,
inactive,
passive,
inert,
latent,
fallow,
quiescent,
inoperative,
stagnant,
sluggish,
lethargic,
torpid,
motionless,
immobile,
aestivating,
• temporarily inactive or inoperative.
• "that dormant urge to write fiction has re-emerged"
• (of an animal) depicted lying with its head on its paws.
Origin:
late Middle English (in the senses ‘fixed in position’ and ‘latent’): from Old French, ‘sleeping’, present participle of dormir, from Latin dormire ‘to sleep’.
