Pros-trā'tion, n.
n. [Lat. prostratio, Fr. prostration, O. Sp. prostracion, N. Sp. postracion, It. prostrazione. See supra.]
Sense 1. The act of throwing down, or laying flat; the act of falling down, or of bowing in humility or adoration;—primarily, the act of falling on the face, but now used for kneeling or bowing in reverence and worship.
Sense 2. The condition of being prostrate; great depression; dejection; as, a prostration of spirits.
Sense 3. (Med.) A latent, not an exhausted, state of the vital energies; great oppression of natural strength and vigor; that state of the body in disease in which the system is oppressed.
☞ Prostration is different and distinct from exhaustion, and is analogous to the state of a spring lying under such a weight that it is incapable of action; while exhaustion is analogous to the state of a spring deprived of its elastic powers.