Quranic root
كبت
k · b · t
The root centers on forcefully turning an opponent away while bringing him low: repulsion joined to abasement.
The lexical range extends from throwing someone down or prostrate to repelling, routing, thwarting, and humiliating an opponent; related formations also preserve associations with the liver and with inward rage or grief.
- Maqāyīs · row 3914
- Mufradāt · row 1230
- Lane · entry 27759
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كَبَتَ
kabata
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 3 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To forcefully repel or suppress an opponent, overcoming and humiliating him.
The active Quranic use presents an opponent as suppressed; the passive uses present opponents as overcome and disgraced. The voice difference is grammatical rather than a separate lexical meaning.
- Lane · entry 27759
- Mufradāt · row 1230
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:127word 7
“suppress them”
Quran 58:5word 6
“(will) be disgraced”
Quran 58:5word 8
“were disgraced”
To be enraged and grieved.
A reported alternative interpretation of the Quranic passive expression understands the state described as rage and grief rather than abasement through defeat. The historical citation associated with this interpretation is not assigned a modern verse location here.
- Lane · entry 27759
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 9 Classical meanings
كَبَتَ
To throw someone or something down prostrate, or onto the face.
A transitive Form I use; the physical act is also used in a curse or imprecation wishing that someone be brought low.
- Lane · entry 27759
كَبَتَ
To repel or turn away an opponent, rout him, and frustrate or abase him.
Classical active constructions may describe repelling an enemy in anger, putting him to flight, denying him his desired outcome, or causing him to fail to attain it.
- Lane · entry 27759
اِنْكَبَتَ
To be thrown down prostrate or to fall prostrate, including onto the face.
Form VII intransitive or passive-like use.
- Lane · entry 27760
كَبَتَ
To smite or hurt the liver.
An anatomical or idiomatic use equated with كَبَدَ.
- Lane · entry 27759
كَبْتٌ / كِبْتٌ / كَبِتٌ
The liver.
Variant nominal forms identified with كَبِدٌ; the liver is also used idiomatically in expressions about rage or its abatement.
- Lane · entry 27761
كَبْتٌ
Rage or wrath; grief or sorrow.
A nominal emotional-state meaning.
- Lane · entry 27762
مَكْبُوتٌ
Affected with violent grief or sorrow.
A passive-participial formation; the entry also identifies it as the passive participle of كَبَتَ.
- Lane · entry 27763
مُكْتَبِتٌ
Filled with grief or sorrow, or with rage or wrath.
An active-participial or adjectival description of an emotionally overwhelmed person.
- Lane · entry 27764
كَبَتَ غَيْظَهُ
To restrain one's rage within oneself.
A conventional construction describing the containment of anger in the inner self or bosom.
- Lane · entry 27759
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The public headword is normalized to the active Form I perfect كَبَتَ, while the supplied QAC lemma is the passive form كُبِتَ.
The reported rage-and-grief interpretation is preserved, but the historical citation associated with it is not converted into a modern verse location.