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Glite Dictionary
to lay supine

to lay supine

6.2
To lie on your back with your face up
  • phrasal verb
  • /leɪ səˈpaɪn/
  • Specialized
translation icon : acostarse boca arriba
  • He decided to lay supine on the grass and watch the clouds drift by.
  • lay supine on the couch

Examples

  • Scarlett lay supine on the couch with chamomile compresses on her sunburned face and swollen eyes.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Without undressing, he lay supine on the bed and stared sightlessly at the ceiling, Sara beside him, sleeping the hard sleep of exhaustion for now, though Gerald knew it would not last.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The patient is laid supine with their head supported on a head ring.

    Academic text (2010)

  • "Oliver?" He lay supine, staring up at the ceiling, and his eyes were open but not focused.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Her bony figure lay supine under the sheet, as flat and defeated as a corpse.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Each subject lay supine and a blood pressure (BP) cuff was applied to the left arm.

    Academic text (2002)

  • She lay supine, not struggling; the tendons of her arms spasming from time to time under my knees.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • He wrote: "The central point of the body is the navel: for if a man is laid supine with his arms and legs extended, and a circle is drawn around him... the extremities would touch the circumferential line; and in the same manner... it will also be found to agree with the square; for... the breadth is equal to the height, the same as in the area of a square."

    Academic text (1992)

  • The doctor said it was best for him to lay supine during the examination.

  • After the tiring workout, she lay supine on the mat to rest.

Synonyms

to stretch out
vsto lay supine
21 2.5

Lie down with your body straight to rest or relax

specifies the back-facing orientation rather than extension or relaxation
flat on one's back
vsto lay supine
9 4.0

Lying on the back on the ground because someone is tired, hurt, or sick

focuses only on the back-facing posture without implying cause or condition
to recline
vsto lay supine
4 2.9

To make someone lean back into a comfortable position

describes a flat back-on-surface posture rather than a leaned or supported rest
lying supine
vsto lay supine
1 6.1

A person who is on their back with their face up

is the same basic position expressed as a simple verb phrase
resupine
vsto lay supine
  • Specialized
9.9

Lying on the back with the face up

is the common phrase form used in ordinary speech rather than a technical term

Antonyms

prone
11 3.9

Lying flat with the front of your body on the ground

How Reclined

to lay supine
  • Specialized
6.2
to recline
11 3.2
to lean back
66 2.2

Surface Forms

lay supine infinitive
laying supine present participle
lays supine third person singular
laid supine past
laid supine past participle

Morphology

lay + supine

The meaning is compositionally derivable from the constituents: 'lay' (to set/position) plus 'supine' (lying face upward) directly yields 'to place or be positioned lying on the back.' Even allowing for the lay/lie grammatical nuance, a B1 learner who knows both words can infer the intended posture; the pattern is a straightforward adjective + verb composition common across languages.

Etymology

Lay supine paints a clear picture of someone lying flat with their face up. The word supine means 'on the back', so the phrase simply means 'to lie on one's back'.