non-reˈsistant, a. and n.
[non- 2, 3.]
A. adj. Not resistant; † pertaining to or involving the doctrine of non-resistance.
| 1702 De Foe Test Ch. Eng. Loyalty 20 This Doctrine of Absolute, Passive, and Non-resistant Obedience. a 1735 Arbuthnot State Quacks Misc. Wks. 1751 I. 159 [To] teach Passive-Obedience and Non-Resistant Principles. 1796 Coleridge Lett. (1895) 201 It commands them never to use the arm of flesh, to be perfectly non-resistant. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxi. (1856) 272 We, so utterly helpless, hampered, and non-resistant, must await the inevitable action of the ice. 1871 Spencer Princ. Psychol. II. vi. xiv. (1872) 179 The two being distinguished as resistant extension—and non-resistant extension. 1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 165 The tissue..being soft and non-resistant. |
B. n. One who does not resist authority or force (occas. = non-combatant); one who holds or practises the doctrine of non-resistance.
| 1755 in S. M. Hamilton Lett. to Washington (1898) I. 91 The fighting Faction..threaten to put to Death all the Non-resistents—Dunkers, Moravians, Dutch and Quakers. c 1850 Saxe Poems (1874) 20 When for their dogmas Non-Resistants fight. 1863 W. Phillips Sp. xvii. 385, I confess I am not a non-resistant. 1870 T. W. Higginson Army Life 231 Released on parole as a non-resistant. |