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to repose

to repose

2 7.5
To lie or rest in a still, relaxed position
  • verb
  • /rɪˈpoʊz/
  • Literature
: reposar
  • After a long day, she decided to repose on the couch and watch her favorite show.

And when I walk, a bison walks, and when I repose a mountain, when I rest, a mountain reposes.

Examples

  • Both the graveyard and those who reposed there were well known to him.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • If you be pleased, retire into my cell and there repose.

  • The manuscripts repose in the National Archives of Sweden.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Everything invited him to repose at his country estate and to shun the strenuous, dangerous business of national politics.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Reposing in a glass-topped coffin, Rosalia looks as if she is sleeping.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Portraits of deceased Spanish nuns depict their subjects reposing in their caskets and bearing the same accoutrements that Sor Isabel wore in death.

    Academic text (2011)
  • The statue reposed gracefully in the center of the garden, surrounded by colorful flowers.

  • He liked to repose under the old oak tree, enjoying the shade and tranquility.

Synonyms

to recline
vsto repose
11 3.2

To lean or lie back in a comfortable position

is about complete stillness and can apply to a dead body

Antonyms

∞ 1.0

To stop sleeping or make someone else stop sleeping

167 1.0

A change of position of a body part or object

Phrasal Verbs

to repose on
  • Formal
8.2

To depend on something as the main basis for an idea or argument

How Restful

to repose
  • Literature
2 7.5
to lie down
221 1.0
to recline
11 3.2
to rest
816 1.0
to sit
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

repose infinitive
reposed past
reposed past participle
reposing present participle
reposes third person singular

Morphology

repose = pose (opaque) = re + pose

The intransitive sense 'to lie/rest' is not transparently derived from 'pose' for most learners; the form-to-meaning mapping is not obvious.

Etymology

To repose in the sense 'to lie or rest' is tied to the same idea of stopping or pausing; think of rest or pause, so when someone or something reposes it is simply 'lying' in calm stillness.