beauty-sleep

A form of beauty sleep — Originally, sleep taken before midnight, on the belief that early sleep hours conduce to beauty and health; now (chiefly humorous), sleep at any time needed by one to stay beautiful; (countable) an instance of such sleep.

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Meanings

nounbeauty-sleep (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of beauty sleep.

    A medical man, who may be called up at any moment, must make sure of his ‘beauty-sleep.’

    1857, Charles Kingsley, “The Cruise of the Waterwitch”, in Two Years Ago, volume II, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 148
    2 more examples

    And would I please to remember that I had roused him up at night, and the quality always made a point of paying four times over for a man's loss of his beauty-sleep. I replied that his loss of beauty-sleep was rather improving to a man of so high complexion; and that I, being none of that quality, must pay half-quality prices; […]

    1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, pages 187–188

    At first he was quite peevish. "What's the idea," he said, "coming and spoiling a man's beauty-sleep? Get out."

    1915 November, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “The Mixer: I. He Meets a Shy Gentleman.”, in The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories, London: Methuen & Co. […], published 1922, →OCLC, page 67
Cite this entry
APA

beauty-sleep. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beauty-sleep

MLA

“beauty-sleep.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beauty-sleep. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beauty-sleep,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beauty-sleep.

Source: beauty-sleep on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.