sleepy

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA: /ˈsliːpi/
• Rhymes: -iːpi

Adjective

sleepy (comparative sleepier, superlative sleepiest)

1. Tired; feeling the need for sleep.
   • Dryden

     She wak'd her sleepy crew.

2. Suggesting tiredness.
   • 1994, Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus Chapter 2

     At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorationsas the tree had recovered from the collision.

3. Tending to induce sleep; soporific.

   a sleepy drink or potion

4. Dull; lazy; heavy; sluggish.
   • Shakespeare

     'Tis not sleepy business; / But must be looked to speedily and strongly.

Synonyms

• tired
• See also Wikisaurus:sleepy

Translations

feeling the need for sleep

• Arabic: نعسان (ar) (naʿsān)
• Bulgarian: сънлив (bg) (sǎnliv)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 想睡 (cmn) (xiǎngshuì), 昏昏欲睡 (cmn) (hūnhūnyùshuì), 睏 (cmn), 困 (cmn) (kùn)

  Min Nan: 啄龜 (nan) (tok-ku), 盹瞌睡 (nan) (tuh-ka-tsuē)

• Czech: ospalý (cs) m
• Danish: søvnig (da)
• Dutch: slaperig (nl)
• Finnish: uninen (fi), unelias (fi)
• French: somnolent (fr) m, endormi (fr), ensomeillé (fr) m, ensuqué (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: schläfrig (de)
• Greek: νυσταγμένος (el) (nystagménos), νυσταλέος (el) (nystaléos)
• Hungarian: álmos (hu)
• Indonesian: mengantuk (id), ngantuk (id)
• Irish: expressed by a phrase using the noun codladh (ga) m ("sleep")
• Japanese: 眠い (ja) (ねむい, nemui), 眠たい (ja) (ねむたい, nemutai)

• Kurdish:

  Sorani: خه‌و هاتن (ku) (xew hatin)

• Latvian: miegains (lv)
• Norwegian: trett (no), døsig (no), søvnig (no)
• Polish: senny (pl), śpiący (pl)
• Portuguese: sonolento (pt), com sono (pt)
• Romanian: somnoros (ro), somnolent (ro) m and n
• Russian: сонный (ru) (sónnyj), сонливый (ru) (sonlívyj), заспанный (ru) (záspannyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: suaineach (gd)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: поспан (sh), сањив (sh), дремљив (sh)

  Roman: pospan (sh), sanjiv (sh), dremljiv (sh)

• Spanish: cansado (es), adormecido (es), sueño (es), soñoliento (es) m
• Swedish: trött (sv), sömnig (sv), pömsig (sv)
• Tagalog: inaantok (tl)
• Thai: เหนื่อย (th) (nèuuay)
• Welsh: cysglyd (cy)

Noun

sleepy (uncountable)

1. (informal) The gum that builds up in the eye
   • 1964, Ken Kesey, Sometimes a great notion

     "Did he always leave the sleepy in his eyes?" "Never removed it; let it build up in the comers of his eyes over the weeks until it was heavy enough to fall...

   • 1991, Martin Amis, London fields

     But the nightdress was heavy, the sleepy in her eyes was heavy, her hair (she made a mustache of one of its locks) was heavy and smelled of cigarettes...