Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. Ordinary Munchausen syndrome (a term coined in 1951) is characterized by a morbid desire for medical attention: its victims induce symptoms in themselves for the thrill of arriving prostrate in the emergency room and being swarmed over by doctors and nurses shouting complicated instructions.
#SONONYM LYING DOWN SERIES#
2010 Prostrate MeaningĪnd then there is prostrate, which means "stretched out with face on the ground in adoration or submission" or "completely overcome and lacking vitality, will, or power to rise."Īdded to the mix are the cameras that broadcast the daily Mass (that, pace Mahony, is said in Latin and accompanied by nuns fully prostrate behind the grille but not beyond the cameras, which are mounted on the walls like a series of surreal, postmodern Stations of the Cross). Marc Fitten, The New York Times, 21 Feb.
With all the rain we've had recently, my roof is beginning to leak and my basement has become prone to flooding. Carrie Arnold, New Scientist, 8 – 14 Feb. While all kinds of animals play host to them, bats seem especially prone. Prone is used in the sense of "having a tendency or inclination," as in "prone to worry" or "accident-prone." This usage is similar to such words as apt, liable, or likely (as in "apt to be late"), but in many instances prone implies a vulnerability to attack or damaging influence, much like one who is lying face down and cannot see what is approaching: Russell Baker, The New York Review of Books, 11 Nov. He despised the farm lobby, for example, for its mastery over a supine Congress that in the early days of the past century regularly enacted costly favors for farmers while extolling special virtues it attributed to tillers of the soil. Some have called him Florida's first king, though that was before budgets tightened and the legislature, formerly as supine as Huey Long's once was in Louisiana, began showing signs of independence and even resentment toward him. Supine, with its image of one lying comfortably idle, shows use in the sense of "mentally or morally slack" or "permissively inactive": James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922 Non-physical Definitionsīoth prone and supine also have meanings that have nothing to do with physical position. He lies prone, his face to the sky, his hat rolling to the wall. I too have been prone on my couch this week, a victim of the common coldĪnd in yet other times, prone is used to describe one who is quite clearly facing upward: Other times, it might not be so apparent: Barbara Harris, Cosmopolitan, August 1972 Her body had to be positioned prone on the operating table, her forehead resting in a sling, her shoulders held by crutchlike supports. In some instances, even without contextual clues, one can make an educated guess whether the person is face up or face down:įoxy, in a skirted lemon-yellow maternity swimsuit, lay supine on a smooth rock, eyes shut, smiling. Daniel Ford, Air & Space, April/May 1996 You could visit the aft cabin by lying supine on a wheeled cart and pulling yourself along an overhead rope through a tunnel 85 feet long and two feet in diameter. Frank Norris, The Octopus: A Story of California, 1901 Water, and this, not because she was thirsty, but because it was a new way to drink. Just now, she chose to drink from the creek, lying prone on the ground, her face half-buried in the If you didn't already know this distinction, you can sometimes infer it from clues in the context: Maybe now she won’t move out.A person lying prone faces downward a person lying supine is face up. And you can LIE to us about whether or not you understood any of this, because we can take it. You can LIE down on a couch, but probably not LAY down on a couch. lie: You can LAY a blanket on someone, but probably not LIE a blanket on someone. Which we know is something you, a moral and upstanding human person, would never do.) So, to recap lay vs. Anyway, more to the point, “lain” is the past participle of “lie,” which is, as you can see, still not “laid.” (“Lied” is also the past tense of “lie,” but only when you’re talking about not telling the truth. Despite what our bestie on the right is saying, “laid” is actually only the past tense of “lay,” while “lay” is the past tense of “lie.” That’s - I mean, that’s confusing, right? We had to reread that a couple times before moving on, rip. We know, we know, it seems like nitpicking, but in formal writing, the difference between lay and lie is kind of important to keep in mind.
To LIE is to rest in a horizontal position.
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