sleep definition | Dictionary.com

sleep

[sleep]

verb, slept, sleep⋅ing, noun

–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.

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sleep⋅er

[slee-per]

–noun

1.	a person or thing that sleeps.

2.	a heavy horizontal timber for distributing loads.

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.
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Link To sleep

sleep (slēp)

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

To be in the state of sleep or to fall asleep.
To be in a condition resembling sleep.

v. tr.

To pass or get rid of by sleeping: slept away the day; went home to sleep off the headache.
To provide sleeping accommodations for: This tent sleeps three comfortably.
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.
To sleep at one's own home, not at one's place of employment.
To sleep away from one's home.

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

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

To sleep at one's own home, not at one's place of employment.
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.
Cite This Source

Sleep

Sleep\, obs. imp. of Sleep. Slept. --Chaucer.

Sleep

Sleep\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Slept; p. pr. & vb. n. Sleeping.] [OE. slepen, AS. sl?pan; akin to OFries. sl?pa, OS. sl[=a]pan, D. slapen, OHG. sl[=a]fan, G. schlafen, Goth. sl?pan, and G. schlaff slack, loose, and L. labi to glide, slide, labare to totter. Cf. Lapse.]

1. To take rest by a suspension of the voluntary exercise of the powers of the body and mind, and an apathy of the organs of sense; to slumber. --Chaucer.

Watching at the head of these that sleep. --Milton.

2. Figuratively: (a) To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.

We sleep over our happiness. --Atterbury. (b) To be dead; to lie in the grave.

Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. --1 Thess. iv. 14. (c) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant; as, a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps.

How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank! --Shak.

Sleep

Sleep\, v. t. 1. To be slumbering in; -- followed by a cognate object; as, to sleep a dreamless sleep. --Tennyson.

2. To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to lodge. [R.] --Blackw. Mag.

To sleep away, to spend in sleep; as, to sleep away precious time.

To sleep off, to become free from by sleep; as, to sleep off drunkeness or fatigue.

Sleep

Sleep\, n. [AS. sl[=ae]p; akin to OFries. sl[=e]p, OS. sl[=a]p, D. slaap, OHG. sl[=a]f, G. schlaf, Goth. sl[=e]ps. See Sleep, v. i.] A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, as well as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man that waketh of his sleep." --Chaucer.

O sleep, thou ape of death. --Shak.

Note: Sleep is attended by a relaxation of the muscles, and the absence of voluntary activity for any rational objects or purpose. The pulse is slower, the respiratory movements fewer in number but more profound, and there is less blood in the cerebral vessels. It is susceptible of greater or less intensity or completeness in its control of the powers.

Sleep of plants (Bot.), 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.

Syn: Slumber; repose; rest; nap; doze; drowse.

Language Translation for : sleep

Spanish: dormir,

German: schlafen,

Japanese: 眠る

More Translations »

sleep

vi.
1. [techspeak] To relinquish a claim (of a process on a multitasking system) for service; to indicate to the scheduler that a process may be deactivated until some given event occurs or a specified time delay elapses.
2. In jargon, used very similarly to v. block; also in `sleep on', syn. with `block on'. Often used to indicate that the speaker has relinquished a demand for resources until some (possibly unspecified) external event: "They can't get the fix I've been asking for into the next release, so I'm going to sleep on it until the release, then start hassling them again."

Jargon File 4.2.0
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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.

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

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.

sleep (slēp) Pronunciation Key
A natural, reversible state of rest in most vertebrate animals, occurring at regular intervals and necessary for the maintenance of health. During sleep, the eyes usually close, the muscles relax, and responsiveness to external stimuli decreases. Growth and repair of the tissues of the body are thought to occur, and energy is conserved and stored. In humans and certain other animals, sleep occurs in five stages, the first four consisting of non-REM sleep and the last stage consisting of REM sleep. These stages constitute a sleep cycle that repeats itself about five times during a normal episode of sleep. Each cycle is longer that the one preceding it because the length of the REM stage increases with every cycle until waking occurs. Stage I is characterized by drowsiness, Stage II by light sleep, and Stages III and IV by deep sleep. Stages II and III repeat themselves before REM sleep (Stage V), which occurs about 90 minutes after the onset of sleep. During REM sleep, dreams occur, and memory is thought to be organized. In the stages of non-REM sleep, there are no dreams, and brain activity decreases while the body recovers from wakeful activity. The amount and periodicity of sleep in humans vary with age, with infants sleeping frequently for shorter periods, and mature adults sleeping for longer uninterrupted periods. See also non-REM sleep , REM sleep.

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)

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.

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