''prostrate'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''prostrate'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260320113731-00-⌔

prostrate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

prostrate (not comparable)

• Lying flat, face-down.
  • ✤ Synonym: prone
  • ✤ Antonym: supine
  • ✤ * Prostrate fall/Before him reverent, and there confess/Humbly our faults.*¹
  • ✤ Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.²
• (figuratively) Emotionally devastated.
• Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.
  • ✤ He was prostrate from the extreme heat.
• (botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.
• (obsolete) Prostrated.

Verb

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.
  • ✤ Synonym: grovel
  • ✤ Those who had the privilege of approaching him, had to prostrate themselves before him in profound humility […]³
  • ✤ But I take the view that the statue is a cheap and cynical stunt by ministers with scant knowledge of history, whose only interest lies in greasing up to modern Indian politicians. With little or no dignity, they shamelessly prostrate themselves in the most craven way.⁴
• To cause to lie down, to flatten.
  • ✤ How many of these mighty pines were to be prostrated under that approaching tempest!⁵
• (figuratively) To overcome or overpower.
  • ✤ Why this very minute she’s prostrated with grief.⁶

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈpɹɒstɹeɪt/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• (General American) IPA: /ˈpɹɑstɹeɪt/
• Hyphenation: pros‧trate

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 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: ↩

2. 1945, Sir Winston Churchill, VE Day speech from House of Commons: ↩

3. 1922, Maneckji Nusserwanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization ‎${}^{[1]}$, page 228: ↩

4. 2014 July 10, Stephen Glover, “Sorry, but Gandhi statue in Westminster is a cheap stunt by ministers with scant knowledge of history greasing up to India”, in Daily Mail ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

5. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XIV, page 175: ↩

6. 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC: ↩

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