adv. [f. SUPINE a. + -LY2.] In a supine position or manner.
1. On one’s back. Also transf. of inanimate things. Chiefly poet.
1656. Cowley, Anacreont., ix. 2. Underneath this Myrtle shade, On flowry beds supinely laid.
1703. Rowe, Fair Penit., Epil. 15. Who Snores at Night supinely by her Side.
c. 1706. Prior, Cantata, 3. Beneath a verdant Lawrel’s ample Shade,… Horace, immortal Bard, supinely laid.
1759. Phil. Trans., LI. 305. The patient being supinely placed upon a steady table,… I caused his hands and feet to be tied together.
1833. Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, 429. Now, he lies A helpless trunk supinely, at full length.
1871. R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, xvii. 4. Lest it [sc. the bridge] plunge to the deep morass, there supinely to welter. Ibid., xxxii. 11. Here I languish alone, supinely dreaming.
2. With lack of exertion or attention; inertly, indolently; † passively.
1603. B. Jonson, Sejanus, II. ii. 382. If hee, for whom it is so strongly labour’d, Shall, out of greatnesse and free spirit, be Supinely negligent.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. § 54. This doctrine … was most supinely and stupidly submitted to.
1681. Dryden, Span. Friar, III. iii. But when long try’d, and found supinely good, Like Æsop’s Log, they leapt upon his Back.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 296. Neither is the Aqueous Humor, as some may supinely imagine, altogether useless.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 301. The Spaniards … who are the most supinely negligent people in the world.
1749. Smollett, Regic., II. iv. Shall I, alas ’ Supinely savage, from my ears exclude The cries of youthful woe?
1781. Cowper, Hope, 198. If priest, supinely droning o’er his charge.
1830. Herschel, Study Nat. Phil., I. iii. § 65. 74. Supinely and helplessly carried down the stream of events.
