supine
Syllables: sup·ine/ˈs(j)uːpaɪn/US/ˌsuˈpaɪn/
supine adjective: lying on its back.
Adjective
supine (comparative more supine, superlative most supine)
- Lying on its back.
- Poor Pnin had come down the last steps on his back. He lay supine for a moment, his eyes moving to and fro.1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 4.8, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 108
- Data, in part previously reported by this laboratory (2, 9), on the effects of mannitol loads in supine subjects, and of saline infusions in both supine and standing subjects, have also been used in the construction of Table III and Figures 1 and 2.1973 January 26, Paul C. Walter, Jon E. Villaume, Thomas J. Taylor, Phosphates: A Monograph (GRAS Monograph Series; nos. 86–88), [Philadelphia, Pa.?]: Franklin Institute Research Laboratories, →OCLC...
- Synonyms:
- reclined
- Of the hand, forearm or foot, turned facing toward the body or upward: with the thumb outward (palm up), or with the big toe raised relative to the little toe.
- when one is washing one’s face, the hand is in the supine position; and then the forearm is also in the supine position; when the foot is resting on the outer side of the sole, it is in the supine position
- Reluctant to take action due to indifference or moral weakness; apathetic or passive towards something.
- Such corruption is commonplace in a world of supine civil servants and underfunded ministries.
- [W]hen Man was fallen, and had abandoned his primitive Innocence, [...] he became puſillanimous, and was eaſily ruffled with every little Paſſion within: ſupine, and as openly expoſed to any Temptation or Aſſault from without.1695, John Woodward, “Part II. Concerning the Universal Deluge. That These Marine Bodies were then Left at Land. The Effects It Had upon the Earth.”, in An Essay toward a Natural History of the...
- Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping.
- But if the Vine / On riſing Ground be plac'd, or Hills ſupine, / Extend thy looſe Battalions largely wide, / Opening thy Ranks and Files on either Side: [...]1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 82, lines...
Noun
supine (plural supines)
- In Latin and other languages: a type of verbal noun used in the ablative and accusative cases, which shares the same stem as the passive participle.
- And here also you may observ, that the syllable which is doubled in the Preterperfect tens is not doubled in the Supines, as totondi to clip, make's tonsum: cecídi to beat, cæsum: […]1653, Charles Hoole, “Of the Supines of Simple Verbs”, in The Latine Grammar Fitted for the Use of Schools. […], 2nd corrected edition, London: Printed by William Du-Gard; and are to bee sold by John...
- There be alſo appertaining unto Verbs, two Supines, the one ending in um, which is called the firſt Supine, becauſe it hath the ſignification of the Verb Active: as, Eo amatum, I go to love: and the other in u, becauſe it hath for the moſt part the ſignification of Paſſive, as Difficilis amatu...1718, Richard Johnson, “Of Supines”, in Grammatical Commentaries: Being an Apparatus to a New National Grammar: […], London: Printed for the author, and sold by Thomas Bickerton, […], →OCLC, page 354
- In Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic and Old Norse: a verb form that combines with an inflection of ha/hafa/hava to form the present perfect and pluperfect tenses.
- The three conjugations are distinguished principally by the ending of the supine. In the first conjugation the supine ends in at, as: tala speak talat spoken. In the second conjugation the supine ends in t after a consonant, as: köpa buy köpt bought. In the third conjugation the supine ends in it...[1849], A[lfred] May, “Etymology”, in A Practical Grammar of the Swedish Language, with Reading- and Writing-exercises, Stockholm: A. Bonnier, →OCLC, page 42
- There are two non-finite forms in Swedish, the infinitive and the supine. […] The supine has two basic allomorphs: -t (weak verbs) and -it (strong verbs). […] The supine verb phrase serves as complement of the perfect auxiliary ha 'have' (hon hade bundit honom) which can be deleted, though, in...2005, Ulf Teleman, “The Standard Languages and Their Systems in the 20th Century IV: Swedish”, in Herbert Ernst Wiegand, editor, The Nordic Languages: An International Handbook of the History of the...
- (obsolete terminology) The 'to'-prefixed infinitive in English or other Germanic languages, so named because the infinitive was regarded as a verbal noun and the 'to'-prefixed form of it was seen as the dative form of the verbal noun; the full infinitive.
supine meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
supine in Tamil
- கைப்புறம், படுக்கைநிலை, மல்லாத்திய, மல்லார்த்து, மல்லார்ந்த, மேல்லாந்த
supine in Urdu
- آرام پسند, کاہل, متعصب
supine in Bengali
- চিৎ হয়ে শোয়া, অলস, নিষ্ক্রিয়
supine in Malayalam
- face upwards, flat on one's back, flat
- മലർന്നു കിടക്കുന്ന, മുഖം മേലോട്ടാക്കി കിടക്കുന്ന, ഉത്താനശയ, ഉത്താനശായി, ഊർദ്ധ്വശായി, മേലോട്ടു നോക്കിക്കിടക്കുന്ന
- spineless, weak, yielding
- ദുർബ്ബലമായ, നട്ടെല്ലില്ലാത്ത, അകല്പ, കരളുറപ്പില്ലാത്ത, അനുരോധക, കീഴടങ്ങുന്ന
More languagesFewer languages
- supine in Kannada
- ಅಂಗತ್ತ aṅgatta
- supine in Tagalog
- tihaya
- supine in Thai
- หงาย ngǎai
- supine in Vietnamese
- ngả, ngả lưng, ngửa
Examples of supine in a sentence
- Nothing, therefore, can be more contrary than ſuch a Philoſophy to the ſupine Indolence of the Mind, its raſh Arrogance, its lofty Pretenſions, and its ſuperſtitious Credulity.1748, [David Hume], “Essay V. Sceptical Solution of These Doubts.”, in Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, London: […]...
- This conclusion is noteworthy given that the European Court has in the past adopted a deferential if not supine approach when assessing the legality of derogations under Article 15.2009 July, Mark Elliott, “Torture, Deportation and Extra-judicial Detention: Instruments of the ‘War on Terror’”, in Cambridge Law Journal...
- A single slice of this could leave you supine in front of the Queen's speech without even the wherewithal to reach for the remote control.2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in The Guardian, London, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2018:
- While they ultimately came to the same conclusion, the pre-emptive tweet made it harder to rebut the court's judgment that they were “supine servants of an overweening master”.2024 May 18, Tabby Kinder, Stephen Morris, “Tesla chair on Musk: ‘I might wake up to a tweet. I don’t wake up to a strategy shift’”, in FT...
Synonyms of supine
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of supine
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more supine |
| superlative | most supine |
| Noun | |
| plural | supines |
Origin of supine
The adjective is borrowed from Latin supīnus, from *sup- (see sub (“under”)) + -īnus (“of, pertaining to”). The word is cognate with Catalan supí, Italian supino, Old French sovin, Middle French souvin, Anglo-Norman supin, Old Occitan sobin, sopin, Portuguese supino, Spanish supino. Partly displaced Old English upweard (“upward, supine”), whence Modern English upward. The noun is from Late Middle English supin (“supine of a Latin verb”) or Middle French supin (“(grammar) supine”), from Latin supīnum, (ellipsis of supīnum verbum (“supine verb”)), from supīnus; further etymology above.
Words formed from supine
Words that rhyme with supine
Questions about supine
- What does supine mean?
- Supine means lying on its back.
- What is supine in Tamil?
- Supine in Tamil is கைப்புறம், படுக்கைநிலை, மல்லாத்திய. See Supine meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use supine in a sentence?
- Nothing, therefore, can be more contrary than ſuch a Philoſophy to the ſupine Indolence of the Mind, its raſh Arrogance, its lofty Pretenſions, and its ſuperſtitious Credulity.
- What part of speech is supine?
- Supine can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce supine?
- Supine is pronounced /ˈs(j)uːpaɪn/ (UK).
Words near supine in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: supine (page history and authors); supine (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); supine (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); supine (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); supine (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ಅಂಗತ್ತ (Kannada) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “supine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/supine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.