Meanings
- uncountablepublic policygovernmentA policy of deliberate inactivity, carried out with diplomatic skill, so as to preserve a predominant influence without risking anything.
Majority Leader Alben Barkley had advised patience and silence, to let the isolationists wear themselves out. This plan of masterly inactivity had flopped frightfully.
1941 March 10, “Peacemongers”, in Time2 more examples
This cautious new approach was to become known as the doctrine of ‘masterly inactivity’, in sharp and obvious contrast to the aggressive ‘forward’ policy which, with such disastrous results in Afghanistan, had preceded it.
1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 256Deep divisions within the Bank of England's monetary policy committee suggest that interest rates are likely to be on hold for a while to come. Whether indecision will translate into masterly inactivity is another matter.
1999 August 19, Mark Milner, The Guardian
Cite this entry
masterly inactivity. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/masterly%20inactivity
“masterly inactivity.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/masterly%20inactivity. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “masterly inactivity,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/masterly%20inactivity.
Source: masterly inactivity on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.