Dictionary

accumbent en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /əˈkʌm.bənt/

Etymology

From Latin accumbō (“recline”), from ad- (“to”) + *cumbō (“recline”).

Meanings

1. Leaning or reclining, as the ancients did at their meals.
   • Together his accumbent pose and closed eyes denoted sleep, as an alternative to death, which the stiff, recumbent pose of previous effigies had embodied. 1998, Anne Markham Schulz, Giammaria Mosca called Padovano: a Renaissance sculptor in Italy and Poland, →ISBN, page 136:
2. Lying against anything, as one part of a leaf against another leaf
   • Distinguished from other genera, with accumbent cotyledons, in the same class and order, by the entire, nearly equal petals; and the dehiscent, nearly entirely pouch, of 2, 1- or many-seeded cells, a broad dissepiment (septum), and nearly flat valves. 1840, William Baxter, British phænogamous botany, volume 5:

Forms

Deriveds

accumbently

Relateds

accumbency · accumb · accubation · recumbent

Translations (8)

la accumbens (leaning or reclining) · fi nojaava (leaning or reclining) · bg легнал (leaning or reclining) · fi nojaava ((botany) lying against something) · pt acumbente ((botany) lying against something) · pl półleżący (leaning or reclining) · bg лежащ (leaning or reclining) · pl leżący ((botany) lying against something)

accumbent en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /əˈkʌm.bənt/

Etymology

From Latin accumbō (“recline”), from ad- (“to”) + *cumbō (“recline”).

Meanings

1. One who rests in an accumbent position, especially at table.
   • Said also to be fond of playing practical jokes, he was apparently in the habit of placing his dinner guests on inflated cushions, which were contrived to deflate suddenly, sending their unsuspecting accumbents sprawling under the tables. 2014, Trevor R. Bryce, Ancient Syria: A Three Thousand Year History:
   • Let us, indeed, see how the point of view has changed which was held in regard to those cultivated and glib accumbents who in former days were taken for real social workers. 1903, “What Is Oblomovisn”, in Leo Wiener, editor, Anthology of Russian Literature from the Earliest Period to the, translation of original by Nikolay Aleksandrovich Dobrolyubov, page 275:
   • What a pennance must be done by every accumbent, in sitting out the passage through all these dishes; what a task the stomach must be put to in the concoction of so many mixtures. 1630, Bishop Joseph Hall, Occasional Meditations:

Forms