These analogies show how common it is for capacities of life to lie dormant: how common a thing it is for a creature in one stage of its existence to have a capacity for passing into a higher stage, a capacity which can be developed only by some agency peculiarly adapted to it.
"The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I"
Marcus Dods
But, at present, a common distress awoke in him dormant tenderness; so he kissed not one but both hands of the little girl.
"In Desert and Wilderness"
Henryk Sienkiewicz
By the time they attract the collector books have become, or are on the road to becoming, so precious that their primary usefulness has to be left dormant.
"Fine Books"
Alfred W. Pollard