dormant

adj

1. (not-comparable)Inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.

   “Grass goes dormant during the winter, waiting for spring before it grows again.”

   “The bank account was dormant; there had been no transactions in months.”

   “This volcano is dormant but not extinct.”

   “It is by lying dormant a long time, or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people.”

   “The repression at Tiananmen Square dealt a serious but not fatal blow to the pro-democracy movement. It has been forced to lie dormant until a future moment of opportunity. As the revolutions in Eastern Europe proved, however, that moment will eventually come.”

2. (not-comparable)In a sleeping posture; distinguished from couchant.

   “a lion dormant”

3. (not-comparable)Leaning.

noun

1. A crossbeam or joist.