How to Use dormant in a Sentence

dormant

adjective
  • The seeds will remain dormant until the spring.
  • Her emotions have lain dormant for many years.
  • Plants go dormant by late spring.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Then, a hard freeze late in the fall meant all that grass went dormant.
    — Laura Paddison, CNN, 3 Mar. 2024
  • Look for dormant, bare-root plants to put in the ground in the fall.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 23 Aug. 2025
  • Check to see if your plant is going dormant.
    — Ashley Chalmers, The Spruce, 11 Feb. 2026
  • The police had let the case lie dormant.
    — Heidi Blake, New Yorker, 8 June 2026
  • Most thinning cuts are made when the plant is dormant.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 28 May 2026
  • Grass can turn brown and go dormant when it's stressed by drought, heat, or both.
    — Lynn Coulter, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 July 2021
  • The best time to prune is in winter when the shrub is dormant.
    — Beth Botts, chicagotribune.com, 28 Feb. 2021
  • Then the site went dormant last winter when cobalt prices dropped.
    — Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 8 Sep. 2023
  • Take cuttings while the tree is dormant.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 19 May 2026
  • But your plant may have simply gone dormant and need more time to rest.
    — Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 27 Feb. 2021
  • The plant grows a big leaf each year which wilts and then becomes dormant.
    — Sophie Carson, Journal Sentinel, 14 July 2023
  • This is rarely the case in fall as most weed seeds are dormant until spring.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Let the soil dry out and the grass go dormant during the summer.
    — Beth Botts, chicagotribune.com, 24 July 2021
  • Alberg rekindles the dormant fire of a man who has lost his spark.
    — Joe Otterson, Variety, 19 Mar. 2024
  • Let lawns go dormant through the summer to save even more money.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 20 June 2021
  • Store the dormant corms in a cool, dry spot and replant next May.
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 2 May 2024
  • Many common lawn weeds are dormant in fall so this task should be simple.
    — Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 25 Oct. 2025
  • The lawsuit the states are seeking to join had been dormant for months.
    — Arkansas Online, 24 Aug. 2025
  • Pruning is done when the tree is still dormant and before buds have formed.
    — oregonlive, 16 Jan. 2021
  • Don’t apply weed and feed when grass has gone dormant for the winter.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 15 Apr. 2026
  • The rest of their Ethereum would remain dormant for the next nine months.
    — Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 12 Oct. 2023
  • His career as an artist would lie dormant for more than 30 years.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 May 2021
  • Their seeds just sit dormant in the dry soil, waiting for their moment.
    — Christopher Intagliata, Scientific American, 3 May 2023
  • Trout, 34, has been mostly dormant as a star in that time.
    — Chris Branch, New York Times, 4 May 2026
  • This is when your pomegranate tree will be dormant.
    — Helena Madden, Martha Stewart, 3 May 2026
  • The board goes far back in the city’s history, but sat dormant for a while.
    — Steve Lord, chicagotribune.com, 28 Jan. 2022
  • Some rainfall and snow has boosted prospects for the now-dormant plants.
    — Michael Hirtzer, Fortune, 1 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dormant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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