In 6 Sc. suppyne. [ad. L. supīnus (whence OF. souvin, Pr. sobi(n), supi(n), It., Sp., Pg. supino), f. Italic *sup-, root of super above, superus higher: see -INE1.]
1. Lying on one’s back, lying with the face or front upward. Also said of the position. Often predicatively or quasi-advb.
Sometimes used loosely for ‘lying, recumbent.’
c. 1500. Kennedy, Passion of Christ, At Cumplin Tyme, 1290. Apoun his bak he did ly on suppyne.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 268. The position or manner of lying of the sickeman, eyther prone that is downeward, or supine that is vpward.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., IV. vi. 193. That women drowned swim prone but men supine, or upon their backs, are popular affirmations, whereto we cannot assent. Ibid. (1658), Hydriot., iv. 21. They buried their dead on their backs, or in a supine position.
1700. Dryden, Ceyx & Alcyone, 295. Where lay the God And slept supine, his Limbs display’d abroad.
1715. Pope, Iliad, IV. 603. Supine he tumbles on the crimson sands.
a. 1788. Pott, Chirurg. Wks., II. 57. When the patient is in a supine posture.
a. 1806. H. K. White, ‘Ye unseen Spirits,’ 4. As by the wood-spring stretch’d supine he lies.
1876. Trans. Clinical Soc., IX. 72. Having placed the patient in the supine position.
1881. J. Payn, Grape from Thorn, xi. The ancient Romans, taking their meals, as they did, supine, and resting on one elbow.
b. Of the hand or arm: With the palm upward; supinated.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., IV. viii. 165. The Radius makes the whole Arm prone or supine.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., iii. 48. The rustic Phidyle should hold out her supine hands.
1868. Livingstone, Last Jrnls., 15 Nov. (1873), I. 346. The Africans all beckon with the hand, to call a person, in a different way from what Europeans do. The hand is held, as surgeons say, prone, or palm down, while we beckon with the hand held supine, or palm up.
c. (a) Of a part of the body: Situated so as to be upward; upper, superior.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., b 5. Their finns are foure, two in the prone part, two in the supine, & circumvallate round. Ibid. The eyes [of fishes] are in the supine part of their heads.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., xxxiv. III. 415. I have seen a fly turn its head completely round, so that the mouth became supine and the vertex prone. Ibid., xlvi. IV. 268. Supine Surface…. The upper surface.
(b) Bot. See quot., and cf. PROCUMBENT a. 2.
1853. MacDonald & Allan, Bot. Wordbk., 32. Supine.… The face of a leaf is called the supine disc.
d. transf. Sloping or inclining backwards. poet.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 373. If the Vine On rising Ground be plac’d, or Hills supine, Extend thy loose Battalions.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, XII. xxi. 4. The prow and stern did curl, Horned on high, like the young moon supine.
2. fig. Morally or mentally inactive, inert, or indolent.
1603. [implied in SUPINELY 2].
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. i. IV. ii. 301. Through their … contempte, supine negligence, extenuation, wretchednes & peeuishnesse, they vndoe themselues.
1630. Donne, Serm. Easter-day (1640), 246. So also did they fall under the rebuke and increpation of the Angell for another supine inconsideration.
1650. Sir E. Nicholas, in N. Papers (Camden), I. 198. The Pr. of Orange … died … of the Small Pox thro’ the supine negligence or worse of some of his Physicians.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., IV. § 13. The lazy supine airs of a fine gentleman.
1761. Hume, Hist. Eng., lv. (1806), IV. 225. They lived in the most supine security.
1779. Boswell, Lett. to Johnson, 17 July. A supine indolence of mind.
1807. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 72. The first ground of complaint was the supine inattention of the administration.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, IV. iv. 181. The supine slaves Of blind authority.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. v. He wakened up from the listless and supine life which he had been leading.
advb. 1615. G. Sandys, Trav., I. 36. So supine negligent are they.
b. Supine of: indifferent to, negligent of. (Cf. LISTLESS a.) Obs. rare.
1724. Welton, Chr. Faith & Pract., 195. A profane … mind that is altogether supine of religion.
c. Not active; passive.
1843. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., II. V. iii. § 21. The stream in their hands looks active, not supine, as if it leaped, not as if it fell.
1878. H. S. Wilson, Alpine Ascents, i. 11. In which the body is supine while the fancy remains active.
