Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PROS-TRA'TION, n.

1. The act of throwing down or laying; flat; as, the prostration of the body, of trees, or of corn.
2. The act of falling down, or the act of bowing in humility or adoration; primarily, the act of falling on the face, but it is now used for kneeling or bowing in reverence and worship.
3. Great depression; dejection; as, a prostration of spirits.
4. In medicine, 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. – Coxe. 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. Prostration does not require the use of invigorating remedies, as exhaustion does.