IMPASSIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does impassive mean? 

• IMPASSIVE (adjective)
  The adjective IMPASSIVE has 2 senses:

1. having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited

2. deliberately impassive in manner

  Familiarity information: IMPASSIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPASSIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited

Synonyms:

impassive; stolid

Context example:

her face showed nothing but stolid indifference

Similar:

unemotional (unsusceptible to or destitute of or showing no emotion)

Derivation:

impassiveness; impassivity (apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deliberately impassive in manner

Synonyms:

deadpan; expressionless; impassive; poker-faced; unexpressive

Context example:

his face remained expressionless as the verdict was read

Similar:

incommunicative; uncommunicative (not inclined to talk or give information or express opinions)

Derivation:

impassiveness (apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions)

 Context examples 

She read it, in the same stately and impassive way,—untouched by its contents, as far as I could see,—and returned it to him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

MY uncle was an impassive man by nature and had become more so by the tradition of the society in which he lived.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Holmes’s expression was as impassive as ever under the jeers of his antagonist, but his clenched hands betrayed his acute annoyance.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And through it all, calm and impassive, leaning on his elbow and gazing down, Wolf Larsen seemed lost in a great curiosity.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A moment later he and I were back in the front room, where the impassive lady was still quietly working away at her antimacassar.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His usually impassive features were in a state of painful agitation, and he spoke slowly and with hesitation, as though his trembling lips could hardly frame the words.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As impassive as ever to the casual observer, there were none the less a subdued eagerness and suggestion of tension in his brightened eyes and brisker manner which assured me that the game was afoot.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She had then taken the impassive figure in her arms, and, still upon her knees, was weeping over it, kissing it, calling to it, rocking it to and fro upon her bosom like a child, and trying every tender means to rouse the dormant senses.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His face was as impassive as ever, but his lids had drooped more heavily over his eyes, and his smoke had curled up more thickly from his pipe to emphasize each curious episode in the doctor’s tale.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)