sleep
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See also: Sleep
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: slēp, IPA(key): /sliːp/
Audio (southern England) (file) Audio (RP; “to sleep”) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /slip/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -iːp
Etymology 1[edit]
From Middle English slepen, from Anglian Old English slēpan, a variant of slǣpan, from Proto-West Germanic *slāpan, from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną.
Verb[edit]
sleep (third-person singular simple present sleeps, present participle sleeping, simple past and past participle slept)
- (intransitive) To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.
- You should sleep eight hours a day.
- 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
- We sleep in the bedroom.
Audio (US) (file)
- We sleep in the bedroom.
- (transitive) To be slumbering in (a state).
- to sleep a dreamless sleep
- (transitive, reflexive) To achieve or make happen by manner of sleep.
- Sleep your way to good health.
- He hoped to sleep his troubles away.
- (idiomatic, euphemistic) To have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).
- Last night we slept together for the first time.
- (idiomatic) To earn by sexual favors.
- Oh, she didnt earn her promotion, she just slept her way to the top.
- (transitive) To accommodate in beds.
- This caravan can sleep four people comfortably.
- (intransitive) To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
- 1706 October 9 (Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preach’d in the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Sept. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, →OCLC, page 407:
- We ſleep over our Happineſs, Great as it is, and want to be rous'd into a quick and thankful ſenſe of it, either by an actual Change of Circumſtances, or by a Compariſon of our Own caſe with that of other Men.
- (intransitive) To be dead; to lie in the grave.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, column 2:
- For if we beleeue that Ieſus died, and roſe againe: euen ſo them alſo which ſleepe in Ieſus, will God bring with him.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- It was that of a man in advanced life, with a long grizzled beard, and also robed in white, probably the husband of the lady, who, after surviving her many years, came at the last to sleep once more for good and all beside her.
- (intransitive) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.
- a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 182, column 2:
- How ſweet the moone-light ſleepes vpon this banke, […]
- (computing, intransitive) To wait for a period of time without performing any action.
- After a failed connection attempt, the program sleeps for 5 seconds before trying again.
- (computing, transitive) To place into a state of hibernation.
- 2009, Mike Lee; Scott Meyers, Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard, page 91:
- Even when you have reasons not to sleep the computer, it's still a good idea to sleep the display after a period of time.
- (intransitive, mechanics, dynamics) To spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
- When a top is sleeping, it is spinning but not precessing.
- 1854, Anne E. Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases:
- A top sleeps when it moves with such velocity, and spins so smoothly, that its motion is imperceptible.
- (transitive, mechanics, dynamics) To cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
- 1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters, page 158:
- Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.
Troponyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- besleep
- coldsleep
- colorless green ideas sleep furiously
- forsleep
- how can you sleep at night
- hypersleep
- outsleep
- oversleep
- sleep around
- sleep-at-noon
- sleep flower
- sleep in
- sleeping bag
- Sleeping Beauty
- sleeping pill
- sleepiphany
- sleep like a baby
- sleep like a log
- sleep off
- sleep on
- sleep out
- sleep over
- sleep rough
- sleep together
- sleepwalk
- sleep with
- sleep with the fishes
- undersleep
Translations[edit]
to rest in state of reduced consciousness
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to accommodate
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See also[edit]
Etymology 2[edit]
From Middle English slepe, sleep, sleepe, from Old English slǣp (“sleep”), from Proto-West Germanic *slāp, from Proto-Germanic *slēpaz (“sleep”).
Noun[edit]
sleep (countable and uncountable, plural sleeps)
- (uncountable) The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.
- I really need some sleep.
- We need to conduct an overnight sleep test to diagnose your sleep problem.
- (countable, informal) An act or instance of sleeping.
- I’m just going to have a quick sleep.
- (informal, metonymically) A night.
- There are only three sleeps till Christmas!
- (uncountable) Rheum, crusty or gummy discharge found in the corner of the eyes after waking, whether real or a figurative objectification of sleep (in the sense of reduced consciousness).
- Synonyms: (informal) sleepy, (informal) sleeper, (informal) sleepy dust, (slang) crusty, (UK dialectal) gound
- Wipe the sleep from your eyes.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 233:
- When she had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and wept till she was tired, she set out on her way and walked for many, many a day, till she at last came to a big mountain.
- 2017, Adam J. Fisch, Neuroanatomy: Draw It to Know It, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:
- [...] and draw the medial canthus (aka medial commissure) at the medial extreme. Now draw the lacrimal caruncle at the medial corner of the eye, which produces whitish, oily fluid—it produces “sleep in the eye.”
- 2019, Jahangir Moini, Anatomy and Physiology for Health Professionals, Jones & Bartlett Learning (→ISBN), page 780, entry "Medial canthus":
- The part of the eyelid that is the location of the lacrimal caruncle, which produces rheum or "sleep," the gritty substance often present when awakening.
- A state of plants, usually at night, when their leaflets approach each other and the flowers close and droop, or are covered by the folded leaves.
- Synonyms: nyctinasty, nyctitropism
- 1843, Joh Müller; John Bell, Elements of Physiology, page 808:
- The daily sleep of plants, and their winter sleep, present in this respect exactly similar phenomena […]
- The hibernation of animals.
Synonyms[edit]
- see also Thesaurus:sleep
- (mucus in the eyes): sleepies, bed booger(s), eye bogey(s), eye bogie(s), eye booger(s), eye crust, eye goop(s), eye gunk(s), eye sand, eye-snot, eye snot, sleepy booger(s)
Derived terms[edit]
- asleep
- beauty sleep
- big sleep
- biphasic sleep
- dead sleep
- deep sleep
- divided sleep
- dog sleep
- electrosleep
- go to sleep
- morning sleep
- orthodox sleep
- polyphasic sleep
- put to sleep
- REM sleep
- segmented sleep
- sleep apnea
- sleep-charged
- sleep debt
- sleep deprivation
- sleep disorder
- sleepful
- sleep-learning
- sleepless
- sleep mask
- sleep mode
- sleep of the just
- sleepover
- sleep paralysis
- sleep schedule
- sleep spindle
- sleeptalk
- sleepy
Translations[edit]
state of reduced consciousness
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informal: act or instance of sleeping
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substance found in the corner of the eyes (gound), sometimes as a figurative objectification of sleep
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References[edit]
- John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “sleep”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.
Anagrams[edit]
Dutch[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun[edit]
sleep m (plural slepen, diminutive sleepje n)
Descendants[edit]
- → Papiamentu: sleep (dated)
Etymology 2[edit]
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb[edit]
sleep
Verb[edit]
sleep
Anagrams[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Noun[edit]
sleep (uncountable)
- Alternative form of slepe
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/iːp
- Rhymes:English/iːp/1 syllable
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English transitive verbs
- English reflexive verbs
- English idioms
- English euphemisms
- English terms with quotations
- en:Computing
- en:Mechanics
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English informal terms
- English metonyms
- English irregular verbs
- en:Sleep
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Dutch/eːp
- Rhymes:Dutch/eːp/1 syllable
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Dutch non-lemma forms
- Dutch verb forms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English uncountable nouns