prostrate
See also: prostate
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin prōstrātus, past participle of prōsternere (“to prostrate”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɑstɹeɪt/
- Hyphenation: pros‧trate
Adjective
[edit]prostrate (not comparable)
- Lying flat, face-down.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Prostrate fall / Before him reverent, and there confess / Humbly our faults.
- 1945, Sir Winston Churchill, VE Day speech from House of Commons:
- Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.
- (figuratively) Emotionally devastated.
- Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.
- He was prostrate from the extreme heat.
- (botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
Translations
[edit]lying flat, facedown
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physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease
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botany: trailing on the ground; procumbent — see procumbent
Verb
[edit]prostrate (third-person singular simple present prostrates, present participle prostrating, simple past and past participle prostrated)
- (often reflexive) To lie flat or face-down.
- (also figurative) To throw oneself down in submission.
- 1922, Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization[1], page 228:
- Those who had the privilege of approaching him, had to prostrate themselves before him in profound humility […]
- To cause to lie down, to flatten.
- 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 175:
- How many of these mighty pines were to be prostrated under that approaching tempest!
- (figuratively) To overcome or overpower.
- 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:
- Why this very minute she's prostrated with grief.
Usage notes
[edit]- Prostrate and prostate are often confused, in spelling if not in meaning.
Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to lie flat or face-down
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to throw oneself down in submission
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to cause to lie down
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See also
[edit]Anagrams
[edit]Italian
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]Verb
[edit]prostrate
- inflection of prostrare:
Etymology 2
[edit]Participle
[edit]prostrate f pl
Latin
[edit]Participle
[edit]prōstrāte
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sterh₃-
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- en:Botany
- English verbs
- English reflexive verbs
- en:Body language
- en:Medical body positions
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms
- Italian past participle forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin participle forms