sleep
/sliːp
/noun [mass noun]
1A condition of body and mind which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended: I was on the verge of sleep he talked in his sleep [in singular]: a good night’s sleep [as modifier]: the effects of sleep loss...
- Based on the results of this study, seven hours of sleep per night seems optimal for longer life.
- Is there anything else that might allow me at least three hours of continuous sleep at night?
- As they get older they may need only nine or ten hours of sleep at night, but it varies just as it does for adults.
Synonyms
nap, doze, rest, siesta, drowse, catnap;
beauty sleep
informal snooze, forty winks, a bit of shut-eye, power nap
British informal kip, zizz
children's language bye-byes
literary slumber
1.1chiefly literary A state compared to or resembling sleep, such as death or complete silence or stillness: a photograph of the poet in his last sleep...
- I was comforted by the thought of the blissful non-dreaming sleep of death but I could no longer believe in that.
- He is not an overly religious man and maintains that there is no after life, that death is a long sleep.
- The only peace that is going to last, for millions of men, is the peace they will get in the sleep of death.
1.2 [count noun] informal (Typically in the context of anticipating a forthcoming event) a night, or a night’s sleep: two more sleeps till I fly to LA
2A gummy secretion found in the corners of the eyes after sleep: she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes...
- Immediately, the chief appeared at the palisades, rubbing sleep from his eyes, but still awake enough to raise the alarm.
- It was the same for several human villagers who exited shabby tents, rubbing sleep from their eyes.
- She rolled to face the door, rubbing sleep from her eyes with one loose fist.
verb (past and past participle slept /slɛpt/)
1 [no object] Be in a state of sleep: she slept for half an hour (as adjective sleeping) he looked at the sleeping child...
- I was very tired after the game, having slept badly all week due to the adrenalin of doing gigs or nerves at the upcoming poker.
- I was worried that I might not have handled it very well and slept badly.
- Not sleeping had become a constant agitation - and the more he worried about it, the worse he slept.
Synonyms
be asleep, doze, rest, take a siesta, nap, take a nap, catnap, drowse;
sleep like a log/top
informal snooze, snatch forty winks, get some shut-eye, be in the land of Nod
British informal kip, have a kip, get one's head down, zizz, get some zizz, doss (down)
North American informal catch some Zs
literary slumber, be in the arms of Morpheus
1.1Be inactive or dormant: Copenhagen likes to be known as the city that never sleeps...
- The prayer centre in Didsbury opened today welcoming Christians aged 16 to 30 who want to worship when the rest of the city sleeps.
- This is a city that rarely sleeps, that never seems to rest in its quest for pleasure, in its endeavour at enterprise, in its inherent divinity.
- Alas, the ads were kind of a cheat - by the time Jason finally reached the city that never sleeps, the movie was nearly 3/4 over.
1.2 literary Be at peace in death; lie buried: he sleeps in Holywell cemetery...
- Bede the priest sleeps eternally.
- One who "sleeps the eternal slumber" lives in the heart.
2 [with object] Provide (a specified number of people) with beds, rooms, or places to stay the night: studios sleeping two people cost £70 a night...
- The package said sleeps six, but I say more comfortably 4 or 5 people.
- The hotel sleeps over 100 guests, and every bedroom is unique.
- The Norman Rockwell Room sleeps 4 with one double\\full bed and two single beds.
3 [no object, with adverbial] Have sexual intercourse or be involved in a sexual relationship: I won’t sleep with a man who doesn’t respect me...
- Lots of girls pretend to be sexually open but still think that if they sleep with someone then there should be a relationship.
- He didn't say anything about his sexuality, but of course, we who hoped to sleep with him all speculated.
- Noel and Ruby complicate their relationship even further by sleeping together.
Phrases
one could do something in one's sleep
get to sleep
go to sleep
let sleeping dogs lie
put someone to sleep
put something to sleep
sleep easy
sleep like a log (or top)
sleep on it
the sleep of the just
sleep rough
sleep tight
sleep with one eye open
Phrasal verbs
sleep around
sleep in
sleep something off
sleep out
sleep over
Origin
Old English slēp, slǣp (noun), slēpan, slǣpan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch slapen and German schlafen.
A word first recorded around ad 800. The modern-sounding phrase sleep with, meaning ‘to have sex with’, is almost as old, and was used by the Anglo-Saxons. Sleep like a log, meaning ‘to sleep very soundly’, is not recorded before the 1880s, but the earlier version sleep like a top was used in the 17th century—the top here was a wooden toy that spun when whipped by a child, but was otherwise still and lifeless. The modern form of the proverb let sleeping dogs lie appears first in Sir Walter Scott's 1824 novel Redgauntlet. Long before that, in the 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer advised in Troilus and Criseyde that ‘it is not good a sleeping hound to wake’.
Rhymes
- access code
- access course
- access fee
- accessibility
- accessible
- accessibleness
- accessibly
- accession
- accessional
- accession day
- accessive
- accessively
- accessless
- accessorial
- accessorily
- accessoriness
- accessorise
- accessorize
- accessory
- accessory before (or after) the fact
- accessory cell
- accessory chromosome
- accessory factor
- accessory mineral
- accessory nerve