sedentary — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Not moving; relatively still; staying in the vicinity.

   Examples

   The oyster is a sedentary mollusk; the barnacles are sedentary crustaceans.

2. Of a human population, living in a fixed geographical location.

   Antonyms

   nomadic

   Examples

   .

3. Of a job, lifestyle, etc., not moving much; sitting around; inactive.

   Examples

   […]the Egyptians; whose Sages were not sedentary, scholastic Sophists, like the Grecian[…]

   […]that any education that confined itself to sedentary pursuits was essentially imperfect, that the body as well as the mind should be cultivated[…]

   More examples (1)

   There is, however, a gap between the athletic games that were played by large groups of men and the sedentary games that are confined to a few players, which I find it difficult to bridge.

4. Inactive; motionless; sluggish; tranquil.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   Such restless revolution day by day Repeated, while the sedentary earth That better might with far less compass move[…]

   The Soul, considered abstractedly from its Passions, is of a remiss and sedentary Nature, slow in its Resolves, and languishing in its Executions.

5. Caused by long sitting.

   Usage

   • Obsolete

   Examples

   till length of years And sedentary numbness craze my limbs To a contemptible old age obscure.

Noun

1. A sedentary person.

   Examples

   More examples (2)

   Endosomatic electrodermal activity (skin potential level and skin potential response) as an indirect indicator of sympathetic nervous system activity was measured in 35 sedentary male students and 22 trained athletes of two groups during resting and after an acute exercise. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference of skin potential parameters between sedentaries and trained athletes before and after the acute exercise in bicycle ergometer.

   The non-sedentaries rather do not without grain or rice, but the sedentaries have, in Wirth's table, not much less sheep and goats than the non-sedentaries. That is a reason to suppose that the sedentaries can cope without the non-sedentaries

   With the decline and eventual downfall of the south, it was their relationship with the Arab sedentaries of the north which assumed greater importance;

   Smiths are not nomadic among the nomads and sedentary among the sedentaries, nor half-nomadic among the nomads, half-sedentary among sedentaries.

   More examples (1)

   "These baths are great both for active people like sportsmen, as well as for sedentaries who spend too much time behind their desks," explains Dicioni Lino

Adjective

1. requiring sitting or little activity

   Examples

   forced by illness to lead a sedentary life