Decubation
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The act of lying down. formal, obsolete, rare, uncountable
"Here we may not omit what Learned men have obſerv'd concerning the Cuſtome of Prophets and Perſons inſpir'd of old, to ſleep [...] on Matraſſes and Beds made of their Leaves, ad Conſulendum to ask adviſe of God. [...] At this decubation upon Boughs the Satyriſt ſeems to hint where he introduces the Gypſies."
Example
More examples"Here we may not omit what Learned men have obſerv'd concerning the Cuſtome of Prophets and Perſons inſpir'd of old, to ſleep [...] on Matraſſes and Beds made of their Leaves, ad Conſulendum to ask adviſe of God. [...] At this decubation upon Boughs the Satyriſt ſeems to hint where he introduces the Gypſies."
Etymology
PIE word *de From Latin dēcubō (“to lie in a bed (that is not one’s own)”) + -ation (suffix indicating an action or process or its result). Dēcubō is derived from dē- (“from”) + cubō (“to lie down”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb-); compare dēcumbō (“to lie down”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.