Inertia

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Inertia \In*er"ti*a\, n. [L., idleness, fr. iners idle. See
     {Inert}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. (Physics) That property of matter by which it tends when
        at rest to remain so, and when in motion to continue in
        motion, and in the same straight line or direction, unless


        acted on by some external force; -- sometimes called {vis
        inerti[ae]}. The inertia of a body is proportional to its
        mass.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     2. Inertness; indisposition to motion, exertion, or action;
        lack of energy; sluggishness.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Men . . . have immense irresolution and inertia.
                                                    --Carlyle.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Med.) Lack of activity; sluggishness; -- said especially
        of the uterus, when, in labor, its contractions have
        nearly or wholly ceased.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Center of inertia}. (Mech.) See under {Center}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  inertia
       n 1: a disposition to remain inactive or inert; "he had to
            overcome his inertia and get back to work" [syn: {inactiveness},
             {inactivity}] [ant: {activeness}]
       2: (physics) the tendency of a body to maintain is state of
          rest or uniform motion unless acted upon by an external
          force

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  112 Moby Thesaurus words for "inertia":
     a wise passiveness, abeyance, apathy, catalepsy, catatonia,
     cautiousness, circumspection, contemplation, contemplative life,
     creeping, deadliness, deathliness, deliberateness, deliberation,
     dilatoriness, do-nothing policy, do-nothingism, do-nothingness,
     dormancy, drawl, dullness, entropy, ergophobia, faineancy,
     faineantise, firmness, foot-dragging, hibernation, hoboism,
     idleness, immobility, immobilization, immovability, immovableness,
     inaction, inactiveness, inactivity, indifference, indolence,
     inertness, inexertion, inextricability, inflexibility,
     irremovability, just being, laggardness, laissez-aller,
     laissez-faire, laissez-faireism, languor, lassitude, latency,
     laziness, leisureliness, lentitude, lentor, listlessness,
     lotus-eating, lull, meditation, mere existence, mere tropism,
     motionlessness, neutralism, neutrality, neutralness,
     noninvolvement, nonparticipation, nonresistance, nonviolence,
     nonviolent resistance, pacifism, paralysis, passive resistance,
     passive self-annihilation, passiveness, passivism, passivity,
     pokiness, policy, procrastination, quiescence, quietism,
     reluctance, remissness, rigidity, shiftlessness, slackness, sloth,
     slothfulness, slowness, sluggardy, sluggishness, solidity,
     spring fever, stagnancy, stagnation, standpattism, stasis,
     suspense, suspension, tentativeness, torpor, underactivity,
     unmovability, unyieldingness, vagrancy, vegetation, vis inertiae,
     vita contemplativa, waiting game, watching and waiting