prayer mat
2
2.5
- noun
:
alfombra de oración
- Before performing his prayers, he always lays out his prayer mat facing Mecca.
- roll out a prayer mat
Examples
-
She keeps her prayer mat neatly rolled up by the door for easy access during prayer times.
-
Dinner can wait a few minutes longer, he reasons, rolling out his prayer mat on the ground.
Fiction book (2000) -
Then he rolls up the prayer mat and goes into the dining room.
Fiction book (2000) -
His prayer mat is folded on a chair against the wall.
Academic text (2017) -
They roll out prayer mats and begin acclaiming in Arabic that there is only one God and Mohammed is His prophet.
Fiction book (1997) -
With only four mosques for 1.5 million worshippers in the city, many believers had to stand outside and lay their prayer mats on the sidewalk in slushy puddles of rain and snow.
Blog text (30) -
In the small room, several people sat on their prayer mats, engaged in tranquil meditation.
Synonyms
2
2.9
A small carpet that Muslims kneel on during prayer
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound directly combines 'prayer' (communication to a deity) with 'mat' (a floor covering), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer it is a mat used for prayer. This noun–noun composition is common cross-linguistically (many languages have equivalent terms for a prayer rug/mat), so the meaning is compositionally transparent despite its cultural specificity.
Etymology
The phrase prayer mat comes from the plain picture of someone unrolling a small mat to kneel and say their prayer toward Mecca. Because the rug is made just for these 'prayers' and 'kneeling', it now means a small rug used by Muslims for prayer.