1(of an animal) having normal physical functions suspended or slowed down for a period of time; in or as if in a deep sleep.

冬眠的蝴蝶。

〈喻〉这个事件唤起了她宁愿让其沉睡在记忆中的往事。

1. 1.1 (of a plant or bud) alive but not actively growing.
   （植物或芽）休眠的
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Place them in a dark, cool cellar where they will dry out and become dormant.
   • The plant sets fruit between July and September and it becomes dormant in early October.
   • We're working with prairie here; if it's dry, the plants go dormant.
   • Keeping it in a frozen state is actually good because the bulbs remain dormant for a longer period of time.
   • All plants go dormant during the winter, but evergreens keep their foliage.
   • Seeds of winter annuals are often dormant at maturity.
   • Once fire was reintroduced, the dormant seeds germinated and grew on the newly revitalized habitat.
   • As long as they are dormant, buds can survive the lowest subzero temperatures of winter.
   • Growing potato tubers or freshly harvested mature tubers have a dormant apical bud.
   • Species tulips are dormant in the summer and prefer dry soil then.
   • So long as those auxin signals move out from the growing tips, few - if any - of the dormant buds on the plant will open up and begin to grow.
   • The following method can be used to determine if dormant wheat plants are alive and likely to resume active growth in the spring.
   • Avoid fertilizing during very hot weather, when many grass lawns are essentially dormant.
   • Following dispersal from the parent plant, seeds are dormant.
   • When established plants go dormant in midsummer, you can divide them.
   • If planting in the fall when dormant, cut back existing roots to about three inches.
   • Allow it to dry out and go dormant in late summer.
   • Most gardeners buy dormant tubers, which are easier to grow than seed and less expensive than blooming plants.
   • Substantial phytase activity was found both in embryonic axes and cotyledons of dormant hazel seeds.
   • Feed herbs once a week when plants are actively growing, but not when dormant.

   Synonyms

   asleep, sleeping, slumbering, resting, reposing, drowsing, comatose, supine
2. 1.2 (of a volcano) temporarily inactive.
   （火山）暂时不活动的，静止的
   Example sentencesExamples

   • The next day the hiking group drove south to Tongariro, a national park with a couple of dormant volcanoes, to do the tramp.
   • It's there in the white-clad high priest presiding in the temple at the summit of a dormant volcano.
   • Many likened the situation to a dormant volcano that may erupt violently if matters are left unresolved.
   • Formed from a now dormant volcano, the island is incredibly beautiful with craggy peaks and lush vegetation sloping down to the clear waters of the Indian Ocean.
   • Fuji is a Japan's highest mountain with a dormant volcano, which most recently erupted in 1708.
   • Now, you may remember how Mount St. Helens became active last year after it was dormant for decades.
   • One could liken it to a dormant volcano, asleep for now but all the while bubbling with life beneath the surface; ready to erupt at any time.
   • At least there was an escape route, just in case I felt the dormant volcano erupting.
   • In contemporary cricket, one force reckoned to be a dormant volcano is erupting now.
   • Haleakala, the dormant volcano reaching to 10,023 feet, is home to ‘Science City’, a research facility and observatory.
   • The summit of dormant volcano Mauna Kea is home to the world's largest astronomical observatory and most powerful telescope.
   • There are many places to go beyond the beach, most obviously the lunar landscape of the dormant volcano Teide, but also the mysterious Pyramids of Guimar.
   • These could be courses in the bottom of dormant volcanoes, on isolated islands, or atop unfathomably high mountaintops.
   • It's pretty low with no big hills just a few small and long dormant volcanos.
   • Formed by similar mountain-building forces, both islands have dormant volcanoes in their central regions.
   • My goal was the summit of Mount Baker, a dormant, snow-covered volcano.
   • As Mount St. Helen showed in 1980, even supposedly dormant volcanoes sometimes blow and drift eastward.
   • Running down each side of the valley are mountain peaks dotted with dormant volcanoes.
   • But he noted that other parts of the world have plenty of dormant volcanoes, including France and Germany.

   Synonyms

   asleep, sleeping, slumbering, resting, reposing, drowsing, comatose, supine
3. 1.3 (of a disease) causing no symptoms but not cured and liable to recur.
   （疾病）潜伏期的
   the disease may remain dormant and undetected until transmitted to other fish

   Example sentencesExamples

   • TB is a slowly progressing but entirely treatable condition which can lay dormant for months.
   • "Renal disease tends to lie dormant and often symptoms don't become apparent until it's too late, " he warned.
   • TB is a condition which progresses slowly and can lay dormant for months.
   • Because such diseases can lie dormant for 40 years before symptoms appear, many more cases are expected to surface.
   • She said there had been no other cases reported but the disease could lie dormant for several days before producing symptoms.
   • Diabetes mellitus, chronic renal failure and cirrhosis of the liver seem to predispose the activation to disease of the otherwise dormant latent infection.
   • Within a few months her dormant atopic eczema had flared, and she was treated at a local clinic.
   • Other viruses lie dormant for decades to come out in different ways.
   • Symptoms can lie dormant for 70 years and there is no cure for virtually all cases of mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lung.
   • However, some time is required to treat dormant diseases such as chronic asthma and diabetes.
   • Tubercle bacilli can remain dormant for years before producing active disease.
   • It can lie dormant for decades before any of its symptoms manifest themselves.
   • But it is estimated that it could be responsible for 10,000 deaths a year by 2020, as symptoms lie dormant for decades.
   • Here the enzyme lays dormant until non-toxic drugs, called prodrugs, are given.
   • Granted his psychotic illness was largely dormant at the time, but he did have a major diagnosis.
   • The virus may lie dormant for years before symptoms appear.
   • This happens because the virus lies dormant in local nerves until reactivated by factors such as stress or menstruation.
   • But although symptoms can lie dormant for 70 years, on average incurable mesothelioma takes between 10 and 30 years to develop.
   • Recent research has indicated that the disease can lie dormant for up to 40 years before symptoms show.
   • Anthrax, a serious wasting disease, can lie dormant for many years so the risk still exists.

   Synonyms

   asleep, sleeping, slumbering, resting, reposing, drowsing, comatose, supine
4. 1.4Heraldry usually postpositive (of an animal) depicted lying with its head on its paws.
   〔纹章〕（动物）卧睡的