supinely

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suÂ·pine

Â (so͞o′pīn′, so͞o-pīn′)

adj.

1. Lying on the back or having the face upward.

2. Having the palm upward. Used of the hand.

3. Marked by or showing lethargy, passivity, or blameworthy indifference: "No other colony showed such supine, selfish helplessness in allowing her own border citizens to be mercilessly harried" (Theodore Roosevelt).

In Latin grammar, a verbal noun used in only a few syntactic constructions and occurring in only two cases, an accusative in -tum or -sum and an ablative in -tū or -sū. The accusative form of the supine is sometimes considered to be the fourth principal part of the Latin verb.

[Middle English supin, Latin verbal noun, from Late Latin supīnum (verbum), (verb) lying on its back, (verb) going back, neuter of Latin supīnus; see upo in Indo-European roots.]

suÂ·pine′ly adv.

suÂ·pine′ness n.

American HeritageÂ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright Â© 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Adv.	1.	supinely - with the face upward; "she was stretched supinely on her back"
	2.	supinely - in an indifferently supine manner; "he called the tune to me and I supinely took it up"

References in classic literature ?

Towards the second evening she reached the irregular chalk table-land or plateau, bosomed with semi-globular tumuli--as if Cybele the Many-breasted were supinely extended there--which stretched between the valley of her birth and the valley of her love.

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I owed no fealty to the Jeddak of Kaol, but he was of the same race of noble red men as my own princess, and I would not stand supinely by and see his warriors butchered by the cruel and heartless demons of the waste places of Barsoom.

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He believed that he was going to his death, for mighty as were his thews he knew that in the face of the horde they would avail him little, yet he saw no other way than to sit supinely by while the girl went to her doom, and that he could not do.

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There would seem to me to be about one chance in several million that we shall succeed--otherwise we shall die more quickly but no more surely than as though we sat supinely waiting for the torture of a slow and horrible death."

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In the jungle one would scarcely stand supinely aside while another took his mate.

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He gave no sign; but when the low step gliding along the curbstone came to his feet he dodged in skilfully in front of the big turning wheel, and spoke up through the little trap door almost before the man gazing supinely ahead from his perch was aware of having been boarded by a fare.

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Will the Scottish Conservatives supinely suck up the snubs from Westminster or stand up for Scotland?

Scottish Tories doomed by Boris Johnson's 'New English Conservative Party' - Kenny MacAskill

The subjects were positioned supinely, while the neck was rested on a pillow.

Virtual touch tissue imaging quantification shear wave elastography for determining benign versus malignant cervical lymph nodes: a comparison with conventional ultrasound

Then, the swine were supinely secured on the operating table for the following procedures.

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Improving Survival and Alleviating Kidney Injury in a Swine Model of Cardiac Arrest Compared to Conventional Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Alexander Carlile, a member of the House of Lords, who was deported upon arrival at the Delhi airport, slammed the Indian government, saying it 'should be ashamed to have revoked the visa to a member of the House of Lords; they gave in supinely and slavishly to pressure from the Bangladesh government'.