All 3 Uses of
initiative
in
Childhood's End
- Hinmrnity will have lost its initiative and become a subject race.†
Chpt 2 *initiative = the ability and tendency to determine what should be done and to start doing it without instruction; or to start something
- He was one of the islanders who was determined to make the most of this visit, if only to show the Overlords that men still had plenty of initiative and were not yet, as he put it, "fully domesticated".†
Chpt 17
- Beyond this island"—his gesture indicated, and rejected, the rest of the globe—"I fear that the human race has lost its initiative.†
Chpt 17
Definition:
the ability and tendency to determine what should be done and to start doing it without instruction
or:
to start something
or:
to start something
The exact meaning of starting something depends upon the context. For example:
- "She did it on her own initiative." -- started it without anyone telling her to
- "She seized the initiative." -- started actions that force others to react to her rather than her having to react to them
- "the peace initiative" -- a plan or the start of actions to bring about something
- "a ballot initiative" -- a proposed law that is started by citizen petition rather than by the legislature (applicable in many jurisdictions such as California)