Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Lying face upward: Describes a physical position where a person's back is against a supporting surface and their front (face, chest, abdomen) is facing upward.
   • Offering no resistance; passive or inactive: Describes a metaphorical attitude of lethargy, indolence, or a failure to act or resist due to apathy or weakness.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective (Physical Position):

  • He lay supine on the grass, staring at the clouds.
  • The patient was placed in a supine position for the examination.

• Adjective (Metaphorical Attitude):

  • The government's supine acceptance of the demands angered the public.
  • She criticized the committee for its supine failure to address the corruption.

Advanced Usage

• In a supine manner: Acting with passivity or lethargy.
  • The administration reacted supinely to the crisis.

Variants and Related Words

• Pronation/Supination (Nouns): Technical terms in anatomy. is the rotation of the forearm and hand so that the palm faces forward or upward; the opposite of .
• Supinely (Adverb): In a supine manner.
  • He accepted the verdict supinely.

Synonyms

• Prone (Note: Antonym for physical position): Lying face downward.
• Passive: Accepting or allowing what happens without active response.
• Inert: Lacking the ability or strength to move.
• Resistless: Powerless to resist; unresisting.

Related Phrases

• Supine position: A standard term in medicine and anatomy for lying face up.
• Moral supineness: A phrase describing a lack of moral vigor or active principle.

Notes on Different Meanings

• Grammar (Historical/Linguistics): In some grammatical descriptions, particularly of Latin, "supine" is a noun referring to a verbal form. This usage is highly specialized and not common in general English.
  • Example (Specialized Context): In Latin, the supine is a verbal noun of the fourth declension.

Adjective

1. offering no resistance
   • resistless hostages
   • No other colony showed such supine, selfish helplessness in allowing her own border citizens to be mercilessly harried- Theodore Roosevelt
2. lying face upward