prone

prone 1 subject, exposed, open, iiable, susceptible, sensitive

Analogous words: inclined, predisposed, disposed (see INCLINE vb): addicted, habituated, accustomed (see HABITUATE)

2 Prone, supine, prostrate, recumbent, couchant, dormant are comparable when they mean lying upon a surface (as the ground or a floor).

Prone implies a position with the face, chest, or abdomen lying on or turned toward the supporting surface

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if we ourselves lie prone upon the floor we can exemplify the characteristic relationship, for our internal cavity is nearest to the floor, above it is our backbone— Swinton

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Her Majesty, prone but queenly, stretched out on the deck ... to try her hand at target shooting— Time

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Supine applies to a position with the back against a supporting surface, the face upward, and may suggest lethargy, abjectness, or inertness

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lying supine in the bottom of the canoe and staring upward at the immaculate azure of the sky— Wylie

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jaded people lolling supine in carriages— Shaw

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Prostrate basically applies to full-length proneness as in submission, fear, or helplessness; the term also may apply to a horizontal position either prone or supine that is typically brought about by a fall or weakness or shock

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prostrate in homage, on her face, silent— Bottomley

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lying prostrate on my chest, I took a long draft of clear cold water— Hudson

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stood over the bloody and prostrate form— Nordhoff & Hall

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Recumbent may apply to lying down in any position of comfortable repose

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if the patient is greatly weakened or prostrated, he must be kept reasonably warm, recumbent— Fishbein

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recumbent upon the brown pine-droppings— Meredith

}

Couchant and dormant, mainly technical heraldic terms in the senses here involved, apply to a prone body position, the former suggesting that the head is raised as if in watchfulness, the latter that it is lowered in sleep.

Analogous words: flat, *level: groveling, wallowing, weltering (see WALLOW): crawl, *creep

Antonyms: erect