1accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance:the women were portrayed as passive victims
2 Grammar denoting a voice of verbs in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb (e.g. they were killed as opposed to the active form he killed them).The opposite of active.
3(of a circuit or device) containing no source of electromotive force:a passive optical network is to be installed in 2000 homes
(of radar or a satellite) receiving or reflecting radiation from a transmitter or target rather than generating its own signal:passive sensors detect the emissions from enemy radar
(of a heating system) making use of incident sunlight as an energy source:bananas can be grown at the highest altitude using passive solar heating alone
4 Chemistry (of a metal) made unreactive by a thin inert surface layer of oxide.