Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To lean back or lie down on one's back.
  • intransitive verb To be adjustable so that the occupant may recline rather than sit up.
  • intransitive verb To cause to recline.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To lean backward or downward upon something; rest in a recumbent posture.
  • To bend downward; lean; have a leaning posture.
  • Synonyms Recline is always as strong as lean, and generally stronger, indicating a more completely recumbent position, and approaching lie.
  • To plaee at rest in a leaning or recumbent posture; lean or settle down upon something: as, to recline the head on a pillow, or upon one's arm.
  • Leaning; being in a reclining posture.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cause or permit to lean, incline, rest, etc.; to place in a recumbent position.
  • intransitive verb To lean or incline.
  • intransitive verb To assume, or to be in, a recumbent position.
  • adjective rare Having a reclining posture; leaning; reclining.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To cause to lean back; to bend back.
  • verb transitive To put in a resting position.
  • verb intransitive To lean back.
  • verb intransitive To put one's self in a resting position.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb move the upper body backwards and down
  • verb lean in a comfortable resting position
  • verb cause to recline

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English reclinen, from Old French recliner, from Latin reclīnāre : re-, re- + -clīnāre, to bend; see klei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin reclinare, "to bend back". Confer "decline", "incline".

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