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sleep

 - 12 dictionary results
Sleep Information
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sleep

  [sleep] verb, slept, sleep⋅ing, noun
Use sleep in a Sentence
–verb (used without object)
1. to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness; cease being awake.
2. Botany. to assume, esp. at night, a state similar to the sleep of animals, marked by closing of petals, leaves, etc.
3. to be dormant, quiescent, or inactive, as faculties.
4. to be careless or unalert; allow one's alertness, vigilance, or attentiveness to lie dormant: While England slept, Germany prepared for war.
5. to lie in death: They are sleeping in their tombs.
–verb (used with object)
6. to take rest in (a specified kind of sleep): He slept the sleep of the innocent.
7. to accommodate for sleeping; have sleeping accommodations for: This trailer sleeps three people.
8. to spend or pass in sleep (usually fol. by away or out): to sleep the day away.
9. to recover from the effects of (a headache, hangover, etc.) by sleeping (usually fol. by off or away).
–noun
10. the state of a person, animal, or plant that sleeps.
11. a period of sleeping: a brief sleep.
12. dormancy or inactivity.
13. the repose of death.
14. sleeper (def. 10).
—Verb phrases
15. sleep around, Informal. to have sexual relations with many partners, esp. in a casual way; be sexually promiscuous.
16. sleep in,
a. (esp. of domestic help) to sleep where one is employed.
b. to sleep beyond one's usual time of arising.
17. sleep on, to postpone making a decision about for at least a day: to sleep on a proposal till the end of the week.
18. sleep out,
a. (esp. of domestic help) to sleep away from one's place of employment.
b. Chiefly Northern U.S. to sleep away from one's home.
c. to sleep outdoors.
19. sleep over, to spend one or more nights in a place other than one's own home: Two friends will sleep over this weekend.
20. sleep together, to be sexual partners; have a sexual relationship.
21. sleep with, to have sexual relations with.
—Idiom
22. put to sleep, to put (an animal) to death in a humane way: to put a sick old dog to sleep.
Origin:
bef. 900; (n.) ME; OE slēp (Anglian), slǣp, slāp; c. D slaap, G Schlaf, Goth slēps; (v.) ME slepen, OE slēpan, slǣpan, slāpan, c. OS slāpan, Goth slēpan

Related forms:
sleepful, adjective
sleeplike, adjective

Synonyms:
1. slumber, nap, drowse, doze. 10. rest, repose. 11. nap.
Sleep Information
Learn about sleep and insomnia. Try these tools to help you sleep…
www.Sleep-Information.com
Have a Sleep Disorder?
St. Joseph Hospital of Orange Sleep Disorder Treatments.
www.sjo.org

sleep⋅er

  [slee-per]
–noun
1. a person or thing that sleeps.
2. a heavy horizontal timber for distributing loads.
3. Building Trades.
a. any long wooden, metal, or stone piece lying horizontally as a sill or footing.
b. any of a number of wooden pieces, laid upon the ground or upon masonry or concrete, to which floorboards are nailed.
4. a sleeping car.
5. Informal. something or someone that becomes unexpectedly successful or important after a period of being unnoticed, ignored, or considered unpromising or a failure: The play was the sleeper of the season.
6. merchandise that is not quickly sold because its value is not immediately recognized.
7. Often, sleepers. one-piece or two-piece pajamas with feet, esp. for children.
8. bunting 3 .
9. a sofa, chair, or other piece of furniture that is designed to open up or unfold into a bed; convertible.
10. Also called sleep, sand. a globule that forms at the inner corner of the eye, esp. during sleep, from the accumulated secretion of the glands of the eyelid.
11. any of several gobioid fishes of the family Eleotridae, of tropical seas, most species of which have the habit of resting quietly on the bottom.
12. Slang. a spy; mole.
13. Slang. a juvenile delinquent sentenced to serve more than nine months.
14. Bowling. a pin that is hidden from view by another pin.
15. Chiefly British. a timber or beam laid in a railroad track, serving as a foundation or support for the rails; tie.
Origin:
1175–1225; ME; see sleep, -er 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To sleep
sleep   (slēp)   
n.  

    1. A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming.

    2. A period of this form of rest.

    3. A state of inactivity resembling or suggesting sleep; unconsciousness, dormancy, hibernation, or death.

  2. Botany The folding together of leaflets or petals at night or in the absence of light.

  3. A crust of dried tears or mucus normally forming around the inner rim of the eye during sleep.

v.   slept (slěpt), sleep·ing, sleeps

v.   intr.

  1. To be in the state of sleep or to fall asleep.

  2. To be in a condition resembling sleep.

v.   tr.

  1. To pass or get rid of by sleeping: slept away the day; went home to sleep off the headache.

  2. To provide sleeping accommodations for: This tent sleeps three comfortably.

  3. To sleep at one's place of employment: a butler and a chauffeur who sleep in.

    1. To oversleep: I missed the morning train because I slept in.

    2. To sleep late on purpose: After this week's work, I will sleep in on Saturday.

  5. To sleep at one's own home, not at one's place of employment.

  6. To sleep away from one's home.

Phrasal Verb(s):
sleep around Informal To be sexually active with more than one partner.
sleep in

  1. To sleep at one's place of employment: a butler and a chauffeur who sleep in.

    1. To oversleep: I missed the morning train because I slept in.

    2. To sleep late on purpose: After this week's work, I will sleep in on Saturday.

sleep onTo think about (something) overnight before deciding.
sleep out

  1. To sleep at one's own home, not at one's place of employment.

  2. To sleep away from one's home.

sleep overTo spend the night as a guest in another's home.
sleep togetherTo have sexual relations.
sleep withTo have sexual relations with.

Idiom(s):
sleep like a log/rockTo sleep very deeply.

[Middle English slepe, from Old English slæp; see slēb- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
sleeper

  1. n.
    a sleeping pill. : She took a handful of sleepers with a glass of booze, and that was it.
  2. n.
    someone or something that achieves fame after a period of invisibility. : The movie “Red Willow” was undoubtedly the sleeper of the year, winning six awards.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

sleep  (v.)
O.E. slæpan "to sleep" (class VII strong verb; past tense slep, pp. slæpen), from W.Gmc. *slæpanan (cf. O.S. slapan, O.Fris. slepa, M.Du. slapen, Du. slapen, O.H.G. slafen, Ger. schlafen, Goth. slepan "to sleep"), from PIE base *sleb- "to be weak, sleep" (cf. O.C.S. slabu, Lith. silpnas "weak"), which is perhaps connected to the root of slack (adj.). Sleep with "do the sex act with" is in O.E.
"Gif hwa fæmnan beswice unbeweddode, and hire mid slæpe ..." [Laws of King Alfred, c.900]
Sleep around first attested 1928. Sleeping sickness as a specific African tropical disease is first recorded 1875. Sleepless is from 1412; sleepy first attested c.1225.

sleep  (n.)
O.E. slæp from the root of sleep (v.) (cf. cognate O.S. slap, O.Fris. slep, M.Du. slæp, Du. slaap, O.H.G. slaf, Ger. Schlaf, Goth. sleps). Personified as L. Somnus, Gk. Hypnos (see somnolence). Fig. use for "repose of death" was in O.E.; to put (an animal) to sleep "kill painlessly" is recorded from 1942. Sleep-walker "somnambulist" is attested from 1747. To be able to do something in (one's) sleep "easily" is recorded from 1953.

sleeper 
c.1225, "one who sleeps, one who is inclined to sleep much," agent noun of sleep (v.). Meaning "railroad sleeping car" is from 1875. Sense of "something whose importance proves to be greater than expected" first attested 1892, originally in Amer.Eng,. sports jargon, probably from earlier gambling slang (1856) sense of "unexpected winning card." Meaning "spy, enemy agent, etc. who remains undercover for a long time before attempting his purpose" first attested 1955, originally in ref. to communist agents in the West.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1sleep
Pronunciation: 'slEp
Function: noun
1 : the natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of thebody are restored
2 : a state resembling sleep: as a : DEATH 1 sleep> b : a state marked by a diminution of feeling followed by tingling sleep>

Main Entry: 2sleep
Function: intransitive verb
Inflected Forms: slept /'slept/; sleep·ing
: to rest in a state of sleep
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

sleep (slēp)
n.
A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming. v. slept (slěpt), sleep·ing, sleeps
To be in the state of sleep.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Computing Dictionary

sleep
1. (Or "block") When a process on a multitasking system asks the scheduler to deactivate it until some given external event (e.g. an interrupt or a specified time delay) occurs.
The alternative is to poll or "busy wait" for the event but this uses processing power.
Also used in the phrase "sleep on" (or "block on") some external event, meaning to wait for it.
E.g. the Unix command of the same name which pauses the current process for a given number of seconds.
2. To go into partial deactivation to save power.
[The Jargon File]
(2000-09-25)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Idioms & Phrases

sleep

In addition to the idioms beginning with sleep, also see let sleeping dogs lie; lose sleep over; put to sleep. Also see under asleep.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Sleep herbs, supplements
Plus: Good Night Rx for good sleep Formulated by Dr. Ray Sahelian, M.D
www.RaySahelian.com
Zen and the Art of Sleep
Sleep is not the problem. Trying to capture it is.
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