masterly inactivity
masterly inactivity noun: a policy of deliberate inactivity, carried out with diplomatic skill, so as to preserve a predominant influence without risking anything.
Noun
masterly inactivity (uncountable)
- A policy of deliberate inactivity, carried out with diplomatic skill, so as to preserve a predominant influence without risking anything.
- Majority Leader Alben Barkley had advised patience and silence, to let the isolationists wear themselves out. This plan of masterly inactivity had flopped frightfully.1941 March 10, “Peacemongers”, in Time
- This cautious new approach was to become known as the doctrine of ‘masterly inactivity’, in sharp and obvious contrast to the aggressive ‘forward’ policy which, with such disastrous results in Afghanistan, had preceded it.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 256
Questions about masterly inactivity
- What does masterly inactivity mean?
- Masterly inactivity means a policy of deliberate inactivity, carried out with diplomatic skill, so as to preserve a predominant influence without risking anything.
- What part of speech is masterly inactivity?
- Masterly inactivity is a noun.
Words near masterly inactivity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: masterly inactivity (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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