A normally outgoing and assertive child may become unusually compliant and passive, while a generally mild child may act in a demanding and aggressive manner.
The system has functioned for more than a decade, an unusually long life span for a passive bioreactor design.
Passive aggression or passiveness.
In language unusually fierce for Wolfowitz, he derided "our passive containment policy and our inept covert operations" and clearly implied that ousting Saddam should be American policy without quite saying it.
Another study proposes that, in each case examined, "the mother-child relationship became unusually intense and conflict-laden," while the fathers "were uniformly passive and remained relatively uninvolved".
And in a notable act of passive defiance, the power companies have scheduled an unusually large number of plants to close for maintenance this summer — right when air-conditioning season will reach its peak.
When you state what you want clearly, or call out the passive-aggressive actions, the repercussions from the passive aggressive person may include: withdrawal, overt anger (unusually but this is corner-backing stuff), irritability, tears and stalling.
