sleep

present singular third person sleeps · participle present sleeping · participle past slept · past slept · first person past singular slept · archaic present second person singular sleepest · past second person singular slept · archaic past second person singular sleptst · archaic past second person singular sleptest · present singular third person sleeps · archaic present singular third person sleepeth · past singular third person slept · past plural slept · past subjunctive slept · participle present sleeping · participle past slept

1. intransitiveTo rest in a state of reduced consciousness.

   You should sleep eight hours a day.

   1 more example

   We sleep in the bedroom.

   2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

2. euphemisticidiomaticTo have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).

   Last night we slept together for the first time.

3. transitiveTo accommodate in beds.

   This caravan can sleep four people comfortably.

   1 more example

   Huge red tents erected around our small yellow one. Huge red tents that could sleep 8 and instead sleep 2. Lawn furniture is scattered about, duffle bags arrive, the clatter of pots and pans.

   1982 February 13, Lee Swislow, “Amazon Trekking”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 29, page 9

4. idiomaticintransitiveTo be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.

   Huge red tents erected around our small yellow one. Huge red tents that could sleep 8 and instead sleep 2. Lawn furniture is scattered about, duffle bags arrive, the clatter of pots and pans.

   1982 February 13, Lee Swislow, “Amazon Trekking”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 29, page 9

   1 more example

   We ſleep over our Happineſs, Great as it is, and want to be rous'd into a quick and thankful ſenſe of it, either by an actual Change of Circumſtances, or by a Compariſon of our Own caſe with that of other Men.

   1706 October 8 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preach’d in the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Sept. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, →OCLC, page 407

5. euphemisticidiomaticintransitiveTo be dead.

   For if we beleeue that Ieſus died, and roſe againe: euen ſo them alſo which ſleepe in Ieſus, will God bring with him.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, column 2

   2 more examples

   It was that of a man in advanced life, with a long grizzled beard, and also robed in white, probably the husband of the lady, who, after surviving her many years, came at the last to sleep once more for good and all beside her.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   Then bury me beneath the willow Beneath the weeping willow tree And when he knows that I am sleeping Perhaps he will weep for me

   b. 1909, traditional, “Under The Willow Tree”

6. intransitiveTo be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.

   a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps

   1 more example

   How ſweet the moone-light ſleepes vpon this banke,[…]

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 182, column 2

7. intransitivecomputingTo wait for a period of time without performing any action.

   After a failed connection attempt, the program sleeps for 5 seconds before trying again.

8. transitivecomputingTo place into a state of hibernation.

   Even when you have reasons not to sleep the computer, it's still a good idea to sleep the display after a period of time.

   2009, Mike Lee, Scott Meyers, Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard, page 91

9. intransitivedynamicsengineeringTo spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.

   When a top is sleeping, it is spinning without precessing.

   1 more example

   A top sleeps when it moves with such velocity, and spins so smoothly, that its motion is imperceptible.

   1854, Anne E. Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases

10. transitivedynamicsengineeringTo cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.

    Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.

    1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters, page 158

11. slangtransitiveTo knock (someone) out (as, in a fight).

plural sleeps · alternative obsolete sleepe

1. uncountableThe state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.

   I really need some sleep.

   1 more example

   We need to conduct an overnight sleep test to diagnose your sleep problem.

2. countableinformalAn act or instance of sleeping.

   a sound night’s sleep

   1 more example

   I’m just going to have a quick sleep.

3. countableinformalmetonymicallyuncountableA night.

   There are only three sleeps till Christmas!

4. uncountableRheum, crusty or gummy discharge found in the corner of the eyes after waking, whether real or a figurative objectification of sleep (in the sense of reduced consciousness).

   But it rings And we rise, Wipe the sleep out of our eyes[…]

   1980, “Daydream Believer”performed by Anne Murray

   3 more examples

   When she had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and wept till she was tired, she set out on her way and walked for many, many a day, till she at last came to a big mountain.

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 233

   [...] and draw the medial canthus (aka medial commissure) at the medial extreme. Now draw the lacrimal caruncle at the medial corner of the eye, which produces whitish, oily fluid—it produces “sleep in the eye.”

   2017, Adam J. Fisch, Neuroanatomy: Draw It to Know It, Oxford University Press, →ISBN

   The part of the eyelid that is the location of the lacrimal caruncle, which produces rheum or "sleep," the gritty substance often present when awakening.

   2019, Jahangir Moini, Anatomy and Physiology for Health Professionals, Jones & Bartlett Learning, page 780, entry "Medial canthus"

5. countableuncountablebiologyA 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.

   The daily sleep of plants, and their winter sleep, present in this respect exactly similar phenomena[…]

   1843, Joh Müller, John Bell, Elements of Physiology, page 808

   Synonyms: nyctinasty, nyctitropism

6. countableuncountableThe hibernation of animals.

plural Sleeps

1. A surname from English.