prostrate
Americanverb (used with object)
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prostrates,
present (3rd person singular)
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prostrated,
past participle, past
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prostrating
present participle
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to cast (oneself ) face down on the ground in humility, submission, or adoration.
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to lay flat, as on the ground.
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to throw down level with the ground.
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to overthrow, overcome, or reduce to helplessness.
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to reduce to physical weakness or exhaustion.
adjective
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lying flat or at full length, as on the ground.
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lying face down on the ground, as in token of humility, submission, or adoration.
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overthrown, overcome, or helpless.
a country left prostrate by natural disasters.
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physically weak or exhausted.
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utterly dejected or depressed; disconsolate.
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Botany. (of a plant or stem) lying flat on the ground.
adjective
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lying with the face downwards, as in submission
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exhausted physically or emotionally
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helpless or defenceless
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(of a plant) growing closely along the ground
verb
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to bow or cast (oneself) down, as in submission
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to lay or throw down flat, as on the ground
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to make helpless or defenceless
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to make exhausted
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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prostratesimple
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prostratessimple
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have prostratedperfect
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has prostratedperfect
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am prostratingprogressive
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are prostratingprogressive
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is prostratingprogressive
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have been prostratingperfect progressive
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has been prostratingperfect progressive
Past
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prostratedsimple
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had prostratedperfect
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was prostratingprogressive
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were prostratingprogressive
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had been prostratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of prostrate
First recorded in 1350–1400; (for the adjective) Middle English prostrat, from Latin prōstrātus “lying flat,” past participle of prōsternere “to lie flat, knock down, overthrow,” from prō- pro- 1 + sternere “to lay out, stretch, spread”; verb derivative of the adjective
Explanation
The verb prostrate means to lie face-downward in submission or despair. More generally, it means to make helpless or defenseless. Illness, injury, grief, despair — any of these things can prostrate someone. The word prostrate traces back to the Latin word prostratus, meaning “thrown down.” If you are prostrate, you feel thrown down and laid flat. It can describe lying on the ground in a helpless position, or it can be used to describe someone who has been overcome or made unable to function, such as someone who is prostrated by grief or illness.
Vocabulary lists containing prostrate
The Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
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Julius Caesar
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The Call of the Wild
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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:
But as Argentine players lay prostrate on the pitch and Argentine fans lost their minds, they didn’t care that it wasn’t pretty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt "almost as if I was there" as he carried out a prostrate removal on Paul Buxton.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
Department of Health and Human Services now requires consent for breast, pelvic, prostrate and rectal exams for “educational and training purposes” performed by medical students, nurse practitioners or physician assistants.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2024
“You don’t have to prostrate yourself to the usual conformist rules,” a friend tells Jack, explaining hyperlinks but not just that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
Commoners had to prostrate themselves before high-ranking chiefs.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
In her 1910 autobiography, she wrote of the Santa Ana wind that “its breath dries up the plants, gives headaches to people, and prostrates them … it uproots trees, tears off roofs, and devastates fields.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2021
I quite like this tableau, the mystic bard shuffling sadly on to a plane, foregoing his ancient principle of opposing a supertax, as his agent prostrates himself on the ground for his lost 700 grand.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2020
Fazal’s Karim smiles a lot, seems absolutely enchanted by English weather and, at their second meeting, without provocation, prostrates himself to kiss Victoria’s feet.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 25, 2017
The other prostrates himself, back bent, head lowered, with his right arm outstretched over clusters of bananas and other produce offered as homage to the allegorical queen.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 24, 2016
They are like a superstition which, the more it prostrates the crowd and the longer it continues, the more it becomes powerful, just in proportion to their increasing weakness.
From Life of John Keats by William Michael Rossetti
"As soon as I arrived in Port Sudan, I prostrated in the airport and cried intensely because I never imagined I would reach a safe haven," he said.
From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026
At another point of the ceremony, the nine lay prostrated on a carpet in front of the basilica’s central altar in a sign of obedience, humility and giving of oneself.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2021
“The French justice system has prostrated itself before a writer,” said Mehana Mouhou, a lawyer involved in the suit against the author.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2020
At one point in the Mass, the archbishop prostrated himself, his face and hands touching the carpet in front of the altar.
From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2019
Later on, Úrsula had put candles on it and had prostrated herself before it, not suspecting that instead of a saint she was adoring almost four hundred pounds of gold.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A few months before Khan was elected prime minister, local media carried photos of the couple prostrating at the Baba Farid shrine.
From Reuters ● May 16, 2023
But we must never underestimate a strain of masochism in some people, the desire to bow down to the mighty as if they were prostrating themselves before a deity.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2023
But it was his act of prostrating in prayer after goals that reverberated in the wider global consciousness, even among those who don't follow football.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2022
The kowtow meant prostrating oneself before the emperor or a patriarch and knocking one’s head on the ground.
From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2020
There had never before been in my emotions such an impulse to pray—and I did, prostrating myself on the living-room rug.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
