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to repose

to repose

2 7.5
To lie or rest in a still, relaxed position
  • verb
  • /rɪˈpoʊz/
  • Literature
translation icon : 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.