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”). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian gjumë (“sleep”).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /slʌmbə/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: slŭmʹbər, IPA(key): /ˈslʌmbɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌmbə(ɹ)
- Hyphenation: slum‧ber
Noun
slumber (plural slumbers)
- A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- John Bunyan
- He at last fell into a slumber, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night.
- William Shakespeare
- Fast asleep? It is no matter; / Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.
- John Dryden
- Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes.
- John Bunyan
- (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.
- 2009, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity
Derived terms
Translations
a very light state of sleep
|
Verb
slumber (third-person singular simple present slumbers, present participle slumbering, simple past and past participle slumbered)
- (intransitive) To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- Bible, Psalms cxxi. 4
- He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
- Bible, Psalms cxxi. 4
- (intransitive) To be inactive or negligent.
- (transitive, obsolete) To lay to sleep.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Wotton to this entry?)
- (transitive, obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
Translations
to be in a very light state of sleep
|
to be inactive or negligent
|
See also
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms suffixed with -er
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌmbə(ɹ)
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for quotations/Wotton
- Requests for quotations/Spenser
- en:Sleep