different between prostrate vs kneel

English

Etymology

Latin pr?str?tus, past participle of pr?sternere (“to prostrate”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??st?e?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p??st?e?t/
• Hyphenation: pros?trate

Adjective

prostrate (not comparable)

1. Lying flat, face-down.

   Synonym: prone

   Antonym: supine

   • 1945, Sir Winston Churchill, VE Day speech from House of Commons:

     Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us.

2. (figuratively) Emotionally devastated.
3. Physically incapacitated from environmental exposure or debilitating disease.

4. (botany) Trailing on the ground; procumbent.

Translations

Verb

prostrate (third-person singular simple present prostrates, present participle prostrating, simple past and past participle prostrated)

2. (often reflexive) To lie flat or face-down.
3. (also figuratively) To throw oneself down in submission.
4. To cause to lie down, to flatten.
5. (figuratively) To overcome or overpower.
   • 1936, Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

     Why this very minute she's prostrated with grief.

Usage notes

• Prostrate and prostate are often confused, in spelling if not in meaning.

Related terms

• prostration

Translations

See also

• kowtow

Anagrams

• Perrottas

Italian

Verb

prostrate

1. second-person plural present indicative of prostrare
2. second-person plural imperative of prostrare
3. feminine plural of prostrato

Latin

Participle

pr?str?te

1. vocative masculine singular of pr?str?tus

English

Etymology

From Middle English knelen, knewlen, from Old English cn?owlian (“to kneel”), equivalent to knee +? -le. Cognate with Dutch knielen (“to kneel”), Low German knelen (“to kneel”), dialectal German knielen, kneulen, knülen (“to kneel”), Danish knæle (“to kneel”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: n?l, IPA^(key): /ni?l/
• Rhymes: -i?l
• Homophones: Neal, Neil, Niel

Verb

kneel (third-person singular simple present kneels, present participle kneeling, simple past and past participle knelt or kneeled)

1. (intransitive) To rest on one's bent knees, sometimes only one; to move to such a position.

   • When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped?; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons.

2. (transitive) To cause to kneel.

   She knelt the doll to fit it into the box.
3. (reflexive, archaic) To rest on (one's) knees

   He knelt him down to pray.

Hyponyms

• kneel down, genuflect

Derived terms

• kneeler

Translations

References

• kneel in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• kneel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• kneel at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• K?len