fetal position

noun

: a position (as of a sleeping person) in which the body lies curled up on one side with the arms and legs drawn up and the head bowed forward and which is assumed in some forms of psychic regression

Examples of fetal position in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Someone had put Pace’s body in three garbage bags before stuffing her in the suitcase in the fetal position, with her ankles shackled to her wrist and arm, Wamp described. —Olivia Lloyd, Charlotte Observer, 23 Jan. 2025

The slab revealed so much awfulness, later confirmed through forensic anthropology: the bones of a girl, lying in the fetal position, hands and feet bound together by an extension cord also wrapped around her neck. —Sarah Weinman, Rolling Stone, 1 Dec. 2024

She was balled up tight in a fetal position, her backpack shielding her as stones, dirt and granite chunks, some as large as bricks, rained down. —Paul Hockenos, Smithsonian Magazine, 9 Jan. 2025

Another video appeared to show a group ganging up on a woman lying on the ground in the fetal position while others attempted to break up the crowd. —Louis Casiano, Fox News, 30 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1887, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for fetal position

• academician
• cycloaddition
• decomposition
• diagnostician
• disinhibition
• indisposition
• interposition
• juxtaposition
• mathematician
• metacognition
• metaphysician
• neurotransmission

Medical Definition

fetal position

noun

: a position (as of a sleeping person) in which the body lies curled up on one side with the arms and legs drawn up toward the chest and the head is bowed forward and which is assumed in some forms of psychological regression