Dictionary entry

Prostrate

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pros″trate (?), a. [L. prostratus, p. p. of prosternere to prostrate; pro before, forward + sternere to spread out, throw down. See Stratum.] 1. Lying at length, or with the body extended on the ground or other surface; stretched out; as, to sleep prostrate. Elyot.

Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire. Milton.

2. Lying at mercy, as a supplicant. Dryden.

3. Lying in a humble, lowly, or suppliant posture.

Prostrate fall

Before him reverent, and there confess

Humbly our faults. Milton.

4. (Bot.) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.