dormancy

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
dormancy
    n 1: a state of quiet (but possibly temporary) inaction; "the
         volcano erupted after centuries of dormancy" [syn:
         {dormancy}, {quiescence}, {quiescency}]
    2: quiet and inactive restfulness [syn: {quiescence},
       {quiescency}, {dormancy}, {sleeping}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Dormancy \Dor"man*cy\, n. [From {Dormant}.]
   The state of being dormant; quiescence; abeyance.
   [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Dormancy \Dor"man*cy\, n. [From {Dormant}.]
   The state of being dormant; quiescence; abeyance.
   [1913 Webster]

         It is by lying dormant a long time, or being . . . very
         rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a
         people.                                  --Burke.
   [1913 Webster]

   2. (Her.) In a sleeping posture; as, a lion dormant; --
      distinguished from {couchant}.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Dormant partner} (Com.), a partner who takes no share in the
      active business of a company or partnership, but is
      entitled to a share of the profits, and subject to a share
      in losses; -- called also {sleeping partner} or {silent
      partner}.

   {Dormant window} (Arch.), a dormer window. See {Dormer}.

   {Table dormant}, a stationary table. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
76 Moby Thesaurus words for "dormancy":
      a wise passiveness, abeyance, apathy, catalepsy, catatonia,
      cold storage, contemplation, contemplative life, deadliness,
      deathliness, delitescence, do-nothing policy, do-nothingism,
      do-nothingness, doldrums, entropy, hibernation, idleness,
      immobility, inaction, inactiveness, inactivity, indifference,
      indolence, inertia, inertness, intermission, interruption,
      laissez-aller, laissez-faire, laissez-faireism, languor, latency,
      latent content, latent meaningfulness, latentness, lotus-eating,
      lull, meditation, motionlessness, neutralism, neutrality,
      neutralness, noninvolvement, nonparticipation, nonresistance,
      nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, pacifism, paralysis,
      passive resistance, passive self-annihilation, passiveness,
      passivism, passivity, policy, possibility, potentiality,
      procrastination, quiescence, quiescency, quietism, stagnancy,
      stagnation, standpattism, stasis, suspense, suspension, torpor,
      underactivity, vegetation, virtuality, vis inertiae,
      vita contemplativa, waiting game, watching and waiting

    

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