prostrate

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɑstɹeɪt/
• Hyphenation: pros‧trate

From Middle English prostrat(e) (“prostrate”, also used as the past participle of prostraten), borrowed from Latin prōstrātus, perfect passive participle of prōsternō (“to prostrate”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

prostrate (not comparable)

1. Lying flat, face-down.

   Synonym: prone

   Antonym: supine

   • 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.

2. (figuratively) Emotionally devastated.
3. Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.

   He was prostrate from the extreme heat.

4. (botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
5. (obsolete) Prostrated.

From Middle English prostraten (“(reflexive) to prostrate; (with doun) to fall down in a state of humility or submission”), from prostrat(e) (“prostrate, prostrated”, also used as the past participle of prostraten) +‎ -en (verb-forming suffix), from Latin prōstrātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

prostrate (third-person singular simple present prostrates, present participle prostrating, simple past and past participle prostrated)

2. (often reflexive) To lie flat or face-down.
3. (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 […]

4. 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!

5. (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.

• Prostrate and prostate are often confused, in spelling if not in meaning.

• prostration

• kowtow

• Perrottas

prostrate

1. inflection of prostrare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

prostrate f pl

1. feminine plural of prostrato

prōstrāte

1. vocative masculine singular of prōstrātus