Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lying on the back or having the face upward.
  • adjective Having the palm upward. Used of the hand.
  • adjective Marked by or showing lethargy, passivity, or blameworthy indifference.
  • noun In Latin grammar, a verbal noun used in only a few syntactic constructions and occurring in only two cases, an accusative in -tum or -sum and an ablative in -tū or -sū. The accusative form of the supine is sometimes considered to be the fourth principal part of the Latin verb.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Supinely.
  • Lying on the back, or with the face upward: opposed to prone.
  • Leaning backward; inclined; sloping: said of localities.
  • Negligent; listless; heedless; indolent; thoughtless; inattentive; careless.
  • In botany, lying flat with the face upward, as sometimes a thallus or leaf.
  • noun A part of the Latin verb, really a verbal noun, similar to the English verbals in -ing, with two cases.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Lat. Gram.) A verbal noun; or (according to C.F.Becker), a case of the infinitive mood ending in -um and -u, that in -um being sometimes called the former supine, and that in -u the latter supine.
  • adjective Lying on the back, or with the face upward; -- opposed to prone.
  • adjective Leaning backward, or inclining with exposure to the sun; sloping; inclined.
  • adjective Negligent; heedless; indolent; listless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lying on its back, reclined
  • adjective Sloping or inclined
  • adjective Lethargic; blameworthy indifferent
  • adjective Passive
  • noun grammar A type of verbal noun.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective offering no resistance
  • adjective lying face upward

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English supin, Latin verbal noun, from Late Latin supīnum (verbum), (verb) lying on its back, (verb) going back, neuter of Latin supīnus; see upo in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English supin, from Latin supinum, supinus. Grammatical meaning is from the phrase supinum verbum.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word supine.

Examples

  • Still, you've got to ask yourself – how supine is a journalist who permits himself to be TOLD if he can or can't write down something he is told?

    ‘Which country is more open and transparent?’ « Antiwar.com Blog 2009

  • If you are wont to opine: “if you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear”, you will, of course, remain supine and do nothing.

    Archive 2007-09-30 2007

  • If you are wont to opine: “if you have done nothing wrong, then you have nothing to fear”, you will, of course, remain supine and do nothing.

    The Thought Police Cometh 2007

  • Effects of VIAGRA on Blood Pressure: Single oral doses of sildenafil (100 mg) administered to healthy volunteers produced decreases in supine blood pressure.

    Write Me an Essay 2006

  • As long as the remote banks of the Niester were considered as the boundary of the Roman power, the fortifications of the Lower Danube were more carelessly guarded, and the inhabitants of Maesia lived in supine security, fondly conceiving themselves at an inaccessible distance from any barbarian invaders.

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Then there was President Bush talking about oil, and Hillary Clinton talking about health care, which caused me to realize that if you haven’t lain supine in a claustrophobia-inducing magnetized tunnel while watching Hillary Clinton talk about health care one inch from your eyeballs, well, you just haven’t lived.

    Re-Thinking Jeffrey Goldberg 2008

  • Then there was President Bush talking about oil, and Hillary Clinton talking about health care, which caused me to realize that if you haven’t lain supine in a claustrophobia-inducing magnetized tunnel while watching Hillary Clinton talk about health care one inch from your eyeballs, well, you just haven’t lived.

    Re-Thinking Jeffrey Goldberg 2008

  • Then there was President Bush talking about oil, and Hillary Clinton talking about health care, which caused me to realize that if you haven’t lain supine in a claustrophobia-inducing magnetized tunnel while watching Hillary Clinton talk about health care one inch from your eyeballs, well, you just haven’t lived.

    Re-Thinking Jeffrey Goldberg 2008

  • Then there was President Bush talking about oil, and Hillary Clinton talking about health care, which caused me to realize that if you haven’t lain supine in a claustrophobia-inducing magnetized tunnel while watching Hillary Clinton talk about health care one inch from your eyeballs, well, you just haven’t lived.

    Re-Thinking Jeffrey Goldberg 2008

  • Active operations have been begun before Petersburg, where the two armies had long lain supine.

    Foreign and Colonial Intelligence 1865

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • When talking to my mother about a serious matter I must, at some point in the conversation, be completely supine. I would prefer to be on a carpet if possible.

    December 9, 2006

  • Citations on untragic and pall.

    June 22, 2008

  • 'Sue Pine'

    (for an old love, immune to my charms)

    Here's a line my long lost Sue,


    to say that I still pine for you.

    still wishing that I could divine


    how to get sweet Sue

    Sue Pine

    November 13, 2009

  • "Supine for weeks or months at a time, Connolly could spring up when needed and, provided there was secretarial help on hand, thrash out an overdue essay or review, rush a magazine to print."

    Source: The times Literary supplement

    January 22, 2018