snooze

What it means

1. intransitiveTo sleep, especially briefly; to nap, doze.

   The boss caught him snoozing at his desk.

2. transitiveTo pause; to postpone for a short while.

   To snooze the phone, press and release the power button.

   2011, Dan Gookin, Bill Loguidice, Motorola ATRIX For Dummies, page 40

   2 more examples

   It enables you to dismiss the reminder, dismiss all reminders, open the highlighted item in the Reminder dialog, and snooze the reminder. Snoozing a reminder is similar to hitting the snooze button on an alarm clock[…]

   2003, Ken Slovak, Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, page 110

   Let's say you want to see all your reminders, but you don't want it to be too easy to snooze the ones for important items.

   2007, Sue Mosher, Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming, page 359

In a sentence

The boss caught him snoozing at his desk.

Where it comes from

Unknown, attested since 18th century. Compare Dutch snoezelen (“to snooze”) or Swedish snusa (“to snore lightly”). Compare also Ancient Greek νυστάζω (nustázō, “to doze, drowse”) and Russian сон (son, “sleep, dream”).