Word Direct Answers

What does "prostrate" mean?

Prostrate: Lying at mercy, as a supplicant. Dryden.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Lying in a humble, lowly, or suppliant posture. Prostrate fall Before him reverent, and there confess Humbly our faults. Milton.
  2. 3.(Bot.) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
  3. 4.To lay fiat; to throw down; to level; to fell; as, to prostrate the body; to prostrate trees or plants. Evelyn.
  4. 5.to overthrow; to demolish; to destroy; to deprive of efficiency; to ruin; as, to prostrate a village; to prostrate a government; to prostrate law or justice.
  5. 6.To throw down, or cause to fall in humility or adoration; to cause to bow in humble reverence; used reflexively; as, he prostrated himself. Milman.
  6. 7.To cause to sink totally; to deprive of strength; to reduce; as, a person prostrated by fever.

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