recline
Americanverb (used without object)
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reclines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reclined,
past participle, past
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reclining
present participle
verb (used with object)
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reclines,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reclined,
past participle, past
-
reclining
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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reclinationnoun
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half-reclinedadjective
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half-recliningadjective
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reclinableadjective
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unreclinedadjective
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unrecliningadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reclinesimple
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reclinessimple
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have reclinedperfect
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has reclinedperfect
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am recliningprogressive
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are recliningprogressive
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is recliningprogressive
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have been recliningperfect progressive
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has been recliningperfect progressive
Past
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reclinedsimple
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had reclinedperfect
-
was recliningprogressive
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were recliningprogressive
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had been recliningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recline
1375–1425; late Middle English reclinen < Latin reclīnāre, equivalent to re- re- + clīnāre to lean 1
Explanation
When you recline, you lounge or lean back. It isn't safe to recline while you're driving a car. However, it's perfectly safe to recline on your couch while you watch TV. When you lie back in your hammock, you recline, and when you tilt your airplane seat into the lap of the person sitting behind you, you recline it. You might even have a special chair that reclines when you lean back in it, magically providing you with a footrest — it's called a recliner. Recline, from the Latin reclinare, "to bend back," shares a Proto-Indo-European root with lean.
Vocabulary lists containing recline
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Calligraphy is a bower of abundance, where visitors can recline in plushly padded, heated and ventilated captain’s chairs, dressed in high-grade Nappa leather: the Relaxation Mode seating package.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026
You ignore it picking up while you make your nest: secure the corners of your blanket, adjust your umbrella and finally, comfortably recline.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2025
The seats themselves can recline into two-metre long, fully flat beds.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2024
Several of the ladies are now wearing pink sweats and snuggle on pink blankets on the floor or recline on hot pink blow up chairs to watch — what else? — the “Barbie” movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2023
She sat down on one of the low wooden chairs that slanted so that she had to recline in them in order to rest her back.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Covered in fractal patterns like “the symmetrical innards of a halved cabbage,” the giant humanoid insect reclines, “a god-sized man sleeping atop the quilt of the land.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
If someone reclines into your personal space, what can you do?
From Seattle Times ● May 29, 2023
The museum reclines where the sculpture stands tall, folding a wall that leans south where a steel panel bends north.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2022
Your seat reclines but does not lie flat.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2022
I grab a chair and swing it over near where he reclines on the floor.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
I got comfy and spent much of the trip with the seat reclined.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
I reclined in the exam chair as Shalom parted my hair into sections and cleansed the area with an antiseptic liquid.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2025
For a decade, my therapy appointments required a 30-minute train ride to a mid-rise medical office building in suburban Philadelphia, where I reclined on a black leather couch, grabbing the occasional Kleenex.
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2024
These rigs include everything you'd expect in your average F1 car, including a reclined seat, pedals and steering wheel in front of a big curved screen.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2024
Nine reclined against a crumpled soda can and crossed his arms.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
At a pagoda in the suburb of Amarapura, a statue of a reclining Buddha emerges from a carefully arranged pile of brick rubble, its face respectfully cleaned.
From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026
Clinton swimming with Ghislaine Maxwell in one undated photo; reclining in the hot tub next to the person whose face has been blacked out.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026
The box is carved with scenes of the labors of Hercules, while the lid is decorated with monumental reclining figures of the deceased.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
The name “Groyper” comes from a meme, a plump, reclining version of the internet’s “Pepe the Frog.”
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2025
I stare in the only direction that makes any sense—at the dark old man reclining in his cell.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
