slumber

English

Alternative forms

• slumbre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English slombren, slomren, frequentative of Middle English slummen, slumen (“to doze”), probably from Middle English slume (“slumber”), from Old English slūma, from Proto-Germanic *slūm- (“slack, loose, limp, flabby”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“loose, limp, flabby”), equivalent to sloom +‎ -er. Cognate with West Frisian slommerje, slûmerje (“to slumber”), Dutch sluimeren (“to slumber”), German schlummern (“to slumber, doze”), Swedish slummer (“to slumber”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈslʌm.bə/
• (General American) enPR: slŭmʹbər, IPA^(key): /ˈslʌm.bɚ/

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• Rhymes: -ʌmbə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: slum‧ber

Noun

slumber (plural slumbers)

1. A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

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

   • 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 29:

     Ev’n Luſt and Envy ſleep, yet Love denies / Reſt to my Soul, and ſlumber to my Eyes.

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928, →OCLC:

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

2. (figurative) A state of ignorance or inaction.
   • 2009, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity:

     Marcel Duchamp's urinal and readymades seemed in the beginning to be insider jokes or jokelike paradoxes meant to awaken people from their aesthetic slumbers.

3. (rare, as used by Magnavox clock radios) The snooze button on an alarm clock.

Derived terms

• slumbercoach, slumber coach
• slumberlike

Translations

a very light state of sleep

• Arabic: سِنَة (ar) f (sina)
• Armenian: նինջ (hy) (ninǰ), նիրհ (hy) (nirh)
• Azerbaijani: mürgü
• Bulgarian: дрямка (bg) f (drjamka)
• Danish: slummer c, blund n
• Dutch: sluimering (nl) f
• Esperanto: dormeto
• Finnish: uinuminen (fi), torkkuminen (fi)
• French: somnolence (fr) f
• Galician: soneira f, soneca (gl) f
• Georgian: თვლემა (tvlema), ძილი (ʒili), რული (ruli)
• German: Halbschlaf (de) m, Schlummer (de) m, Schläfchen (de) n
• Greek: υπνηλία (el) f (ypnilía), νύστα (el) f (nýsta)
• Hebrew: תְּנוּמָה f (tnumá)
• Hungarian: félálom (hu)
• Italian: sonnolenza (it) f, dormiveglia (it) f
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: وەنەوز (wenewz), خەوەنوچکە (xewenuçke)

  Northern Kurdish: hînişk (ku) f

• Norwegian: slumre, dorme (no)
• Persian: پینکی (fa) (pinaki)
• Plautdietsch: Schlop (nds) m
• Polish: drzemka (pl) f
• Portuguese: pestana (pt) f, soneca (pt) f, cochilo (pt) m
• Russian: сон (ru) m (son), дрёма (ru) (drjóma)
• Sanskrit: निद्रा (sa) f (nidrā)
• Serbo-Croatian: drijémež (sh) m, drijȇm (sh) m
• Slovene: dremež m
• Spanish: adormecimiento (es) m, adormilamiento
• Swedish: slummer (sv) c

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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalm 121:4:

     He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLII, page 65:

     If Sleep and Death be truly one,
     ⁠And every spirit’s folded bloom
     ⁠Thro’ all its intervital gloom
     In some long trance should slumber on; […]

2. (intransitive) To be inactive or negligent.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To lay to sleep.
   • 1642, Henry Wotton, A Short View of the Life and Death of George Villers, Duke of Buckingham:

     slumber his conscience

4. (transitive, obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Then vp he tooke the slombred sencelesse corse.

Translations

to be in a very light state of sleep

• Akan: tɔ nko
• Armenian: նիրհել (hy) (nirhel), ննջել (hy) (nnǰel)
• Azerbaijani: mürgüləmək (az), mürgü basmaq, mürgü vurmaq, mürgü çalmaq, mürgü döymək, mürgü almaq
• Bulgarian: дремя (bg) (dremja)
• Danish: slumre, blunde
• Dutch: sluimeren (nl)
• Esperanto: dormeti
• Finnish: uinua (fi), torkkua (fi)
• French: somnoler (fr)
• Galician: adurmiñar (gl)
• Georgian: თვლემა (tvlema)
• German: schlummern (de), dösen (de)
• Hungarian: szendereg (hu), szundít (hu), szundikál (hu), szunyókál (hu)
• Italian: dormiveglia (it), appisolarsi (it), assopirsi (it)
• Polish: drzemać (pl) impf, zdrzemnąć pf
• Portuguese: cochilar (pt), dormitar (pt)
• Romanian: dormita (ro), somnola (ro)
• Serbo-Croatian: drijémati (sh)
• Slovene: dremati
• Spanish: adormecer (es), adormilar (es), dormitar (es)
• Sranan Tongo: dyonko
• Swedish: slumra (sv)
• Ugaritic: 𐎊𐎌𐎐 (yšn)

to be inactive or negligent

• Finnish: lorvailla (fi)
• German: träumen (de)
• Italian: appalugarsi (it)
• Norwegian: sløve
• Spanish: estar aletargado

See also

• catnap
• doze
• nap
• shuteye
• slumber party

Anagrams

• Blumers, Bulmers, Burslem, Rumbles, lumbers, rumbles, slumbre, umbrels