Non-sexual term for spread-eagle

Question

This word is just not coming to mind. The closest I can think of are "arms and legs asunder" but that conjures up some pretty graphic and unintended imagery. Same with spread-eagle which is the first term that came to mind.

My question is, is there some word to describe a person laying on the ground with there arms and legs spread that doesn't carry the same sexual connotations as spread-eagle. Example:

She lay ____ on her back after she had fallen from the jungle gym, the air knocked from her lungs.

The part where other words I can think of (such as haphazardly) don't fit, is that spread-eagle seems to imply lying down which is something I would like the alternative to do as well though without the sexual connotations.

Answer 1

I've never heard of spread-eagle, where I come from, people say spread out. Nice to come across new expressions :)

She lay spread out on her back after she had fallen from the jungle gym, the air knocked from her lungs.

Answer 2

Hmm, tough to find an exact fit, though in the place of a sentence like that I often see the following words (though these tend to specify the positioning of the object in question):

(from merriam-webster)

See this one quite commonly used

Prone

lying with the front of your body facing downward

or, less commonly

Prostrate

lying with the front of your body turned toward the ground

A less imaginative alternative is of course flat

Answer 3

He was asprawl on the ground.
He was sprawled on the ground.

Answer 4

A verb to describe her action would be "splay," and you could describe her as "splayed out." I think that verb evokes the violently-spread word "flay," but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be used.

An adjective for that pose would be "supine," though it's not very casual.

Also, "flat on her back" is a colloquial phrase. You might not need to detail the legs in disarray if you've already written that she fell. People will likely envision that she's in a heap, given the scenario.

Answer 5

The non-sexual term for “spread-eagle” is “spread-eagle.”

The analogy is to the giant extended wingspan of an eagle.

Answer 6

You might consider "Vitruvian posture".

Answer 7

The natural fit, from your description, is 'akimbo'. It is used with an adverbial sense that would fit verbatim in your example sentence,

A. adv.
....
2. More generally: askew, awry; in disorder.

["akimbo, adv. and adj.". OED Online. December 2015. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/4463?redirectedFrom=akimbo (accessed February 08, 2016).]

And so your example:

She lay akimbo on her back after she had fallen from the jungle gym, the air knocked from her lungs.

More usually, however, 'akimbo' is used with specific reference to the limbs involved:

1.
....
b. With reference to (other) limbs, esp. the legs: spread or flung out widely or haphazardly.

(op. cit.)

Then your example would be something like this:

She lay on her back, arms and legs akimbo, after she had fallen from the jungle gym, the air knocked from her lungs.

This latter formulation has the grace to stylistically mimic the sense of the sentence (four clauses--arms and legs--somewhat breathlessly resembling something of disarray).