Word: repose Part of Speech: verb Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English reposen (“to rest”), from Anglo-Norman reposer, reposir, and Middle French reposer, from Old French reposer, repauser (“to become calm; to be peaceful; to rest; to be immobile; to lie or be placed; to cease, stop; to neglect”) (modern French reposer), from Latin repausāre, the present active infinitive of repausō (“(Late Latin) to be at rest; to lie down, rest; to sleep; to calm, pacify; (Latin) to halt temporarily, pause”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again; back, backwards’) + pausō (“to cease, halt; to pause”) (from pausa (“a halt, stop; a pause; an end”), from Ancient Greek παῦσῐς (paûsĭs, “ceasing, stopping”), from παύω (paúō, “to cease; to make to cease, stop; to bring to an end; to hinder”) (further etymology uncertain; possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, little; smallness”)) + -σῐς (-sĭs, suffix forming abstract nouns or nouns of action, process, or result)). The noun is derived from Late Middle English repose, from Anglo-Norman repous, repos, and Middle French repos, repose, from Old French repos (“calm; rest; period or state of sleep; state of immobility; state of inaction”) (modern French repos), from reposer, repauser (verb) (see above). Noun etymology 1, noun sense 12.3 (“technique of including in a painting an area or areas which are dark, indistinct, or soft in tone”) is borrowed from French repos. Cognates Catalan reposar (verb), repòs (noun) Italian riposare (verb), riposo (noun) Old Occitan repausar, repauzar (verb), repaus (noun) Portuguese repousar (verb), repouso (noun) Spanish reposar (verb), reposo (noun) Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈpəʊz/, /ɹəˈpoʊz/, /ɹi-/ 1. To lay (someone, or part of their body) down to rest. Labels: also, archaic, figuratively, transitive Example: The Sea-god Glaucus […] Repoſd his head vpon my faintfull knée: […] Example: I could mock the ſultry Toil, / VVhen on my Charmer's Breaſt repos'd. 2. To rest (oneself), especially by going to sleep. Labels: archaic, reflexive, transitive Example: Now may I repoſe me; Cuſtance is mine owne. Example: In peace and honour reſt you here my ſonnes, / Roomes readieſt Champions, repoſe you here in reſt, / Secure from vvorldly chaunces and miſhaps: […] 3. Followed by from or (obsolete) of: to cause (oneself) to take a rest from some activity; also, to allow (oneself) to recover from some activity. Labels: archaic, reflexive, transitive Example: [A]lthough they ſeme as holidaymenne, to repoſe theymſelfes from all corporall buſineſſe: yet they dooe more good then the others, becauſe they doe the thyng moſt chiefly requiſite to be doen. Example: [S]he begged I vvould retire into a chamber, and repoſe myſelf from the uncommon fatigues I muſt have undergone; […] 4. To give (someone) rest; to refresh (someone) by giving rest. Labels: also, figuratively, obsolete, transitive Example: [H]ave ye chos'n this place / After the toyl of Battel to repoſe / Your wearied vertue, for the eaſe you find / To ſlumber here, as in the Vales of Heav'n? Example: VVhoſe Cauſe-vvay parts the vale vvith ſhady rovvs? / VVhoſe ſeats the vveary Traveller repoſe? / VVho feeds yon Alms-houſe, neat, but void of ſtate, / VVhere Age and VVant ſit ſmiling at the gate? 5. To cause (oneself) to have faith in or rely on someone or something. Labels: obsolete, reflexive, transitive Example: That he conſents, if VVarvvicke yeeld conſent, / For on thy fortune I repoſe my ſelfe. Example: I come to your houſe; I riſk my life; I paſs it in ennui; I repoſe myſelf on your fidelity; […] 6. To give (someone) accommodation for the night. Labels: obsolete, rare, transitive 7. To lean or recline, sit down, or lie down to rest; to rest. Labels: also, figuratively, intransitive Example: Though then, the Lords deep VViſedome, to this day, / VVork in the VVorlds vncertain-certain Svvay: / Yet muſt vve credit that his hand compos'd / All in ſix Dayes, and that He then Repos'd; / By his example, giving vs beheſt, / On the Seaventh Day for evermore to Reſt. Example: If you be pleas'd, retire into my Cell, / And there repoſe, a turne or tvvo, […] 8. To lean or recline, sit down, or lie down to rest; to rest. Labels: also, figuratively, intransitive Example: Simon reposed in the year 1287. Example: Lord Jesus, who at the hour of Compline reposedst in the tomb, and wast bewailed by thy most sorrowful Mother, and by other women; make us, we beseech thee, with true tears, to bewail thy most holy Passion, and never to give place to the things by which thou wouldst be crucified again. 9. Followed by on or upon: of a thing: to lie or be physically positioned on something, especially horizontally; to rest on or be supported by something. Labels: intransitive Example: a trap reposing on sand Example: On the table reposed a nut cake which she had baked that morning . . . a particularly toothsome concoction iced with pink icing and adorned with walnuts. 10. Followed by on or upon: of light, a look, etc.: to fall or rest (and often remain for a while) on something; to alight, to dwell. Labels: intransitive Example: [T]he grate did then unclose, / And on that reverend form the moonlight did repose. Example: For on such things the memory reposes / With tenderness,— […] 11. Followed by on or upon: to be based on; to depend or rely on. Labels: intransitive Example: The ſoul repoſing on aſſur'd relief, / Feels herſelf happy amidſt all her grief, / Forgets her labour as ſhe toils along, / VVeeps tears of joy, and burſts into a ſong. Example: Lord Bolingbroke [Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke] may have publiſhed in French a ſketch of his Reflections on Exile: but his reputation novv repoſes on the addreſs of Voltaire, "Docte ſermones utriuſque linguæ;" and by his Engliſh dedication to Queen Caroline, and his Eſſay on Epic Poetry, it ſhould ſeem that Voltaire himſelf vviſhed to deſerve a return of the ſame compliment. 12. To cease activity to rest or recover; also, to have a period free from activity or disturbance. Labels: also, archaic, figuratively, intransitive Example: From the Leila and Majnun of Nizami. […] Thou wert agitated like the sand of the desert; but now thou reposest as the water of the lake. Example: By the forests, lakes, and fountains / Thro' the many-folded mountains; / To the rents, and gulphs, and chasms, / Where the Earth reposed from spasms, […] 13. To have faith in; to confide, to trust. Labels: intransitive, obsolete Example: I do deſire thy vvorthy company, / Vpon vvhoſe faith and honor, I repoſe. Example: In queſtions difficult or dangerous, it is indeed natural to repoſe upon authority, and, vvhen fear happens to predominate, upon the authority of thoſe vvhom vve do not generally think vviſer than ourſelves. 14. To lie still and unmoving. Labels: intransitive, literary, obsolete, poetic Example: [T]he Pebles, Pyritæ, Amber, or other like Nodules, vvhich happened to be repoſed in thoſe Cliffs, amongſt the Earth ſo beaten dovvn, being hard, and not ſo diſſoluble, and likevviſe more bulky and ponderous, are left behind upon the Shores, being impeded, and ſecured, by that their bulk and vveight, from being born along vvith the Terreſtrial Matter into the Sea. Example: [H]er dark and deepening eyes, / Which, as twin phantoms of one star that lies / O'er a dim well, move, though the star reposes, / Swam in our mute and liquid ecstasies, […]