Quiescent   (pronounced kwee-es-nt or kwy-es-nt) adjective


Definition

quiet; still, or at rest (usually only temporarily); marked by a period of inactivity or calmness.

Other Forms

Quiescence (pronounced kwee-es-ns or kwy-es-ns) noun

Main Example

  • When the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed and U.S. troops entered the center of Baghdad on April 9, they were greeted with open arms and jubilation. But during the previous three weeks, as Coalition forces swept through southern Iraq, the predicted uprising by the Shiites did not materialize and they remained quiescent. Why? Partly because of their fear of the Saddam Fedayeen, and partly because they were afraid that, as in 1991, the U.S. might not finish the job and another slaughter by Saddam's forces would follow.

    Workplace Examples

  • Aren't you surprised to see Nina minimally involved with this month's seminar? She has always been the central figure in organizing these things, but for some reason she is playing a rather quiescent role this time!

  • Yeah, I am not all that pleased with their choice of the new manager either, but let's face it: Anything that shakes things up a bit is better than this kind of quiescence and relative inactivity we have endured for so long.

    Other Examples

  • following a surge just before the war in Iraq, gas prices once again becoming quiescent

  • thanks to a new drug, doctors being able to get somebody's painful illness into a stage of quiescence

  • some economists predicting that inflation and long-term interest rates will not rise, but instead remain quiescent for the foreseeable future

  • Chechnya, a region of southwest Russia and one which had been quiescent during the Soviet times, fighting for independence since the early 1990s

  • in 1988, Congress formally apologizing to Japanese Americans, saying their incarceration in U.S. internment camps during WWII was not justified given their quiescence at the time

    © 2003 V.J. Singal

    This Month's Other Words

    Illusory
    Patrimony
    Acerbic
    Vexed
    Evince
    Inure
    Disingenuous

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