palms upwards

Hi,
She sat motionless with her legs crossed, her hands on the lap - palms upwards, one over the other.

Is the description of this meditative posture correct?
'In her lap' is idiomatic.
Clive

'In her lap' is idiomatic

I see. And Thanks

Clive, Why 'in' is more natural? We're talking about the upper surface of a thigh right? Shouldn't it be 'on' like putting my hand on my leg and not in my leg ?

Hi,
As I said, 'in her lap' is idiomatic. We say it that way because we like to say it that way.

Some possible factors to consider -
We think of a lap as being 'like a container'. eg if I toss a ball to you, you might 'catch it in your lap'.

When you sit down, you have a lap. When you

CliveWhen you sit down, you have a lap. When you stand up, your lap disappears.

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Thanks, Clive. That helps! My dumb dictionary defines it as a physical part of the body. One more question, does a person has one or two laps?

Thanks

One.

Thanks, GG. One last question. It just came to my mind. Do you say, I set the napkin on my thighs/in my lap?

Thanks

I can tell you that just about every single time I sit down to dinner, I have to remind my children to put their napkins in their laps.

Got it. Thanks, GG.