oversleep

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *úp

Proto-Indo-European *-er

Proto-Indo-European *upér

Proto-Germanic *uber

Old English ofer-

Middle English over-

English over-

English sleep

English oversleep

From over- + sleep.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊvəˈsliːp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊvəɹˈslip/
• Rhymes: -iːp

Verb

oversleep (third-person singular simple present oversleeps, present participle oversleeping, simple past and past participle overslept)

1. (intransitive) To sleep for longer than intended. [from 14th c.]

   I overslept and was late for school.

2. (reflexive, now rare) To sleep for longer than one intended. [from 15th c.]
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXXXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC:

     After such a train of fatigue and restless nights, I had unhappily overslept myself […].

   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, section IV:

     Theodore made awkward excuses, and attributed his delay to having overslept himself.

   • '
     1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came down to breakfast disgracefully late, [...].

3. (transitive) To sleep beyond (a given time), to sleep through (an event etc.). [from 16th c.]

   to oversleep one's usual hour of rising

Antonyms

• undersleep

Derived terms

• oversleeper

Related terms

• outsleep
• sleep in
• sleep it out

Translations

to sleep for longer than planned

• Arabic: اِسْتَغْرَقَ فِي النَّوْم (istaḡraqa fī an-nawm)
• Azerbaijani: yatıb qalmaq
• Belarusian: праспа́ць pf (praspácʹ)
• Bulgarian: успи́вам се impf (uspívam se), успя́ се pf (uspjá se)
• Carpathian Rusyn: преспац (prespac)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 睡過頭 / 睡过头 (zh) (shuìguòtóu)

• Czech: zaspat (cs) pf
• Danish: sove over sig
• Dutch: zich verslapen (nl)
• Faroese: ovsova, sova yvir
• Finnish: nukkua pommiin (fi)
• French: trop dormir
• German: verschlafen (de), verpennen (de)
• Greek: παρακοιμάμαι (el) (parakoimámai)
• Hungarian: elalszik (hu)
• Icelandic: sofa yfir sig
• Italian: dormire troppo
• Japanese: 寝過ごす (ja) (ねすごす, nesugosu), 寝坊する (ja) (ねぼうする, nebō suru)
• Korean: 늦잠을 자다 (neutjam-eul jada)
• Latvian: aizgulēties
• Lushootseed: ʔitutdubut
• Macedonian: се успие pf (se uspie)
• Māori: moeroa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forsove seg (no)

• Polish: zasypiać (pl) impf, zaspać (pl) pf
• Portuguese: dormir demais, adormecer (pt)
• Russian: просыпа́ть (ru) impf (prosypátʹ) (usually perfective only), проспа́ть (ru) pf (prospátʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: преспа́вати pf

  Latin: prespávati (sh) pf

• Slovak: zaspať pf
• Slovene: prespati pf
• Spanish: quedarse dormido
• Swedish: försova sig (sv)
• Turkish: uyuyakalmak (tr)
• Ukrainian: просипа́ти impf (prosypáty) (usually perfective only), проспа́ти pf (prospáty)

Anagrams

• overpeels, sleep over, sleepover