prostrate

Prostrate is to lie or bend down in adoration.

(verb)

An example of prostrate is to bow in front of the tabernacle at church.

The definition of prostrate is lying face down or bending over in adoration.

(adjective)

An example of prostrate is a person lying face down in front of a religious leader.

See prostrate in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective

lying with the face downward in demonstration of great humility or abject submission
lying flat, prone, or supine
thrown or fallen to the ground
1. laid low; completely overcome; helpless: prostrate with grief
2. in a state of physical exhaustion or weakness
Bot. growing on the ground; trailing

Origin: ME prostrat < L prostratus, pp. of prosternere, to lay flat < pro-, before + sternere, to stretch out < IE base *ster- > strew

See prostrate in American Heritage Dictionary 4

transitive verb pros·trat·ed, pros·trat·ing, pros·trates

To put or throw flat with the face down, as in submission or adoration: “He did not simply sit and meditate, he also knelt down, sometimes even prostrated himself” (Iris Murdoch).
To cause to lie flat: The wind prostrated the young trees.
To reduce to extreme weakness or incapacitation; overcome: an illness that prostrated an entire family; a nation that was prostrated by years of civil war.

adjective