Does "inanimate object" mean an object that is "not alive" or an object that is "not moving" or both?

From a brief look at the OED, it seems that over the centuries both inanimate and its antonym animate have been used variously - to describe things that are living/not living, things that have life or are lifeless, or things that move/do not move.

Its specific meaning, therefore it would seem, can vary according to context - so a drone, a tree, a dead being can all be described as inanimate.

Animate

1. Endowed with life, living, alive; (esp. in later use) alive and having the power of movement, like an animal. In quot. a1398 ‘animat virtu’ = animal spirit n. 1a. ▸ a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vi. xxvi. 335 Wakinge is nouȝt elles but fre [MS from] schedinge of spiritis into þe lymes of felynge and of meuynge, and doinge þe worchinge of þe animat vertu [L. animalis virtutis] in þe body.

?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 51 (MED) [Woundes] made of bodiez inanimate, as swerd..Or of animate, as of puncture of venenous bestez.

c1475 Court of Sapience (Trin. Cambr.) (1927) l. 1126 (MED) Good watyr, that noble element..Hys dropes swete eke byn most nutrytyf And cause of lyfe to eche thyng animate.

1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 51/4 Mans bodye is the most delicatest amongst all the animate bodyes.

1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke ii. i. 102 Phylosophers..have affirmed the magnet or loadstone to be animate.

1667 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 580 Corruption of Bodies Inanimat and Animat.

1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) In Mechanicks, Animate Power is used to denote a Man or Brute.

1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 45 They apply the word heart, only to animate beings.

1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes i. 5 That men should have worshipped..stocks and stones, and all manner of animate and inanimate objects.

1872 Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. 3 83 The American Indian distinction of animate and inanimate objects.

1922 T. A. Coward Bird Haunts & Nature Memories 141 Jizz may be applied to or possessed by any animate and some inanimate objects, yet we cannot clearly define it.

1944 Americas 1 211 It distinguishes between animate and non-animate being.

2002 N. Drury Dict. Esoteric 13/1 Inanimate objects as well as animate ones have a lifeforce or energy quite distinct from the physical form.

Inanimate

1. Not animated or alive; destitute of life, lifeless; spec. not endowed with animal life, as in inanimate nature, that part of nature which is without sensation, i.e. all outside the animal world.

a1555 J. Bradford Let. in J. Foxe Actes & Monuments (1570) III. 1835/1 Shall we see sacrifice and Gods seruice done to an inanimate creature and be mumme?

1643 J. Steer tr. Fabricius Exper. Chyrurg. xvi. 65 Inanimate creatures, as Trees, and the like.

1785 W. Cowper Task i. 197 Nature inanimate employs sweet sounds, But animated Nature sweeter still.

1828 Scott Fair Maid of Perth ii, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 31 The beauties of inanimate nature.

1866 H. P. Liddon Bampton Lect. iv. 152 At His bidding life returns to inanimate corpses.

1880 J. Muirhead Inst. of Gaius & Rules of Ulpian Digest 632 He who..did damage to any inanimate property..was liable in its highest value.