slumber

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• slumbre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English slomren, slombren, frequentive of slumen (“to doze”), probably from slume (“slumber”), from Old English sluma, akin to Middle High German slumen (“to slumber”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian gjumë (“sleep”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

slumber (plural slumbers)

1. A very light state of sleep, almost awake.

   He at last fell into a slumber, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night. — Bunyan.

   Fast asleep? It is no matter; / Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber. — Shakespeare.

   Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes. — Dryden.

Derived terms

• slumberlike

Translations

a very light state of sleep

• Dutch: sluimering f
• Esperanto: dormeto
• Finnish: torkkuminen
• French: somnolence (fr) f
• Greek: υπνηλία (el) (ypnilía) f, νύστα (el) (nýsta) f
• Hungarian: félálom (hu)

• Italian: sonnolenza (it) f
• Norwegian: slumre (no), dorme (no)
• Russian: сон (son) m, дрёма (ru) (drjóma)
• Serbo-Croatian drijémež (sh) m, drijȇm (sh) m
• Slovene: dremež m
• Spanish: adormecimiento (es) m, adormilamiento (es)

Verb

slumber (third-person singular simple present slumbers, present participle slumbering, simple past and past participle slumbered)

1. (intransitive) To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake
2. (intransitive) To be inactive

Translations

to be in a very light state of sleep

• Dutch: sluimeren (nl)
• Esperanto: dormeti (eo)
• Finnish: torkkua (fi)
• French: somnoler (fr)

• Italian: dormiveglia (it)
• Romanian: dormita (ro), somnola (ro)
• Serbo-Croatian: drijémati (sh)
• Slovene: dremati (sl)
• Spanish: adormecer (es) m, adormilar (es), dormitar (es)
• Swedish: slumra (sv)

to be inactive

• Norwegian: sløve (no)

• Spanish: estar aletargado (es)

See also

• catnap
• doze
• nap
• shuteye
• slumber party

Anagrams

• lumbers, rumbles, umbrels