1. Unable to reply.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 341. To render a man Vnresponsive, is to Confound, Poze, Puzzle, Non-plus.
2. Not responsive; irresponsive.
[1775. Ash.]
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxviii. The hand … turned cold within her grasp, and lay … unresponsive to her caresses.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xviii. 242. All now dull, pulseless, unresponsive as the insensate stone.
1886. Hall Caine, Son of Hagar, I. iv. Hugh took the proffered hand with unresponsive coldness.
Hence Unresponsively adv., -ness.
1881. E. F. Poynter, Among the Hills, II. 114. The words died away, as though she divined the blank unresponsiveness with which her questions would be met.
1898. ‘Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xxv. 266. Dorothy saw this in a glance, and her own face hardened unresponsively.
