Library / English Dictionary

RECLINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lean in a comfortable resting position

Example:

He was reposing on the couch

Synonyms:

recline; recumb; repose

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "recline" is one way to...):

lie (be lying, be prostrate; be in a horizontal position)

Verb group:

recline (cause to recline)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "recline"):

rest (be at rest)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence examples:

The children recline in the rocking chair

There recline some children in the rocking chair

Derivation:

reclining (the act of assuming or maintaining a reclining position)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to recline

Example:

She reclined her head on the pillow

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "recline" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Verb group:

recline; recumb; repose (lean in a comfortable resting position)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

recliner (an armchair whose back can be lowered and foot can be raised to allow the sitter to recline in it)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Move the upper body backwards and down

Synonyms:

lean back; recline

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "recline" is one way to...):

angle; lean; slant; tilt; tip (to incline or bend from a vertical position)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "recline"):

fall back (fall backwards and down)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

reclining (the act of assuming or maintaining a reclining position)

Credits

 Context examples: 

His emotion on entering the room, in seeing her altered looks, and in receiving the pale hand which she immediately held out to him, was such, as, in Elinor's conjecture, must arise from something more than his affection for Marianne, or the consciousness of its being known to others; and she soon discovered in his melancholy eye and varying complexion as he looked at her sister, the probable recurrence of many past scenes of misery to his mind, brought back by that resemblance between Marianne and Eliza already acknowledged, and now strengthened by the hollow eye, the sickly skin, the posture of reclining weakness, and the warm acknowledgment of peculiar obligation.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I thought of him very much after I went to bed, and raised myself, I recollect, to look at him where he lay in the moonlight, with his handsome face turned up, and his head reclining easily on his arm.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Trusses of straw had been thrown down along the walls, and reclining on them were some twenty or thirty archers, all of the Company, their steel caps and jacks thrown off, their tunics open and their great limbs sprawling upon the clay floor.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So Meg reclined, with rubbers well hidden, and Jo went blundering away to the dining room, which she found after going into a china closet, and opening the door of a room where old Mr. Gardiner was taking a little private refreshment.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, and my protruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The said Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room: she lay reclined on a sofa by the fireside, and with her darlings about her (for the time neither quarrelling nor crying) looked perfectly happy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The air of wicked grace: of triumph, in which, strange to say, there was yet something feminine and alluring: with which she reclined upon the seat between us, and looked at me, was worthy of a cruel Princess in a Legend.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Whatever my expectation was, it was not disappointed, for there, on our favourite seat, the silver light of the moon struck a half-reclining figure, snowy white.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Some of them threw themselves in half-reclining positions on the sofas and ottomans: some bent over the tables and examined the flowers and books: the rest gathered in a group round the fire: all talked in a low but clear tone which seemed habitual to them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)