active

& s. [In Ger. aktivum; Fr. act if; Ital. attivo; fr. Lat. activus, fr. actum, supine of ago.] [Аст.] A. As adjective : E ential signification: Po e ed of the power of acting; communicating action or motion to anything else, instead of being itself acted on. Used properly of the mind or spirit of a living being. "It is usual to speak of physical causes as active ; but when any series of natural changes is scrutinised, it appears that what at first we called a cause, is itself the effect of some preceding event, which was, in its turn, an effect. Strictly speaking, mind is the only active principle." (Isaac Taylor: Elements of Thought.) I. Ordinary Language: (a) Of animated beings: 1. Acting, as opposed to being acted upon. [See example from Donne (В. 1).] 2. Quick in movement, nimble, agile. ( Op posed to languid or inert.) "As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth." Shakesp. Sonnets, xxxvil " Active and nervous was his gait." Words worth: Excursion, bk. i. 3. Continually employed, not idle or capable of idlene . Used of the body, the mind, or their operations. ( Opposed to idle or indolent.) "Speed, Malise, speed! such cause of haste Thine actine sinews never braced. Bend 'gainst the steep hill thy breast, Burst down like torrent from its crest." Scott : Lady of the Lake, canto ii, 18 72 "His zeal, still active for the common-weal." Thomson: Liberty, pt. iv. 4. Given to action rather than to contemplation, solitary meditation, study, or the making of plans which are found in practice to be unworkable. ( Opposed to contemplative or Speculative .) "What the engineer is to the mathematician, the actire statesman is to the contemplative statesman. -Macaulay: Hist . Eng., ch. xi. "The only statesman, indeed, active or speculative, who was too wise to share in the general delusion was Edmund Burke."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. xix. (b) Of things inanimate: 1. In continued, rapid, or powerful operation. (Opposed to quiescent or dormant.) [See II. (b).] "Let actire laws apply the needful curb, To guard the peace that riot would disturb." Cowper: Table Talk. 2. Requiring activity. (a) Opposed to tranquil: "The richest earthly boon his hands afford, Deserves to be beloved, but not adored. Post away swiftly to more active scenes, Collect the scatter'd truth that study gleans, Mix with the world, but with its wiser part, No longer give an image all thine heart. Cowper: Retirement. (b) Opposed to sedentary: shorten his life, or render it unfit for active employment."-Goldsmith: On Polite Learning, ch. x. II. Technically: (a) Of things animate: 1. Physiology: (a) Active life in an organised body is a state in which the several functions of life are in activity, as in an ordinary vegetable or plant. It is opposed to dormant life, in which these are quiescent. (Todd & Bowman: Physiol. Anat., Introd.) (b) Active organs of locomotion: The textures which form the skeleton, and by which its segments are united. They are contradistinguished from the pa ive organs of locomotion, which are the muscles to which the nerves convey the mandates of the will. ( Ibid ., i. 67.) (c) Active disease: An acute disease. " Active congestion,' ' active dropsies,' ' active hæmorrhage.'"- Index to Tanner: Manual of Med. 2. Mental Phil. A division of the powers of the mind. Reid and his followers cla ified the mental powers in two categories (1) Intellectual powers, and (2) Active powers. 3. Mech.: Active or living force. [VIS VIVA.] (b) Of things inanimate: 1. Gram.: Acting upon something else instead of itself being acted on. An active verb or a verb active: One which expre es an action, and nece arily implies an agent and an object acted upon. In this cla ification there are two other descriptions of verbs- pa ive and neuter verbs, the former expre ing pa ion, or suffering, or the receiving of an action; and the latter denoting neither action nor pa ion, but being, or a state of being. (Lindley Murray: Grammar.) A verb active is now generally called a transitive verb, in this Dictionary marked v.t. A compound active verb (Dr. Campbell); an active transitive verb (Crombie): One which, when standing alone, is neuter and intransitive, but which being followed by a preposition inseparably connected with it, forms with it a compound verb, which is active or transitive. Example: To laugh at . Omit at , and the verb is neuter, or intransitive, as "He laughed." Insert it, however, and a compound active verb is formed, as "He laughed at them," "they were laughed at." (Crombie: Etym. & Synt. Eng. Lang., 1802, p. 86.) 2. Political Economy and Commerce: Active capital: Wealth in the readily-available form of money, or which may without delay be converted into money, and used for any purpose requiring capital. Active Commerce: The commerce of a nation which carries goods to and from its own and other lands in its own ships, and by means of its own sailors, in place of allowing the profit of these lucrative transactions to be reaped by foreigners. The commerce of our own country is highly active , that of the Asiatic nations is mostly pa ive . 3. Law : An active debt: A debt due to a person. An active trust : A confidence connected with a duty. Active use: A present legal estate. 4. Geology. An active volcano : One which at not very remote intervals bursts forth in eruption. It is opposed to a dormant volcano, or to an extinct volcano. [DORMANT, EXTINCT.] B. As substantive: 1. That which acts on something else instead of being itself acted on. ( Opposed to pu ive .) "When an even flame two hearts did touch, His office was, indulgently to fit Actives to pa ives: correspondency Only his subject was."-Donne. *active-valiant, a . Po e ed both of activity and valour. "I do not think a braver gentleman, More active- valiant , or more valiant young, More daring, or more bold, is now alive." Shakesp.: 1 Henry IV ., v. i. *ac-tive-a-ble, a. [Eng. active; -able.] Capable of activity. ăc-tive-ly, adv. [Eng. active; -ly.] 1. Energetically, briskly. 2. By active application.