slumber

plural slumbers · alternative obsolete slumbre

1. A very light state of sleep, almost awake.

   Fast asleep? It is no matter; / Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   2 more examples

   Ev’n Luſt and Envy ſleep, yet Love denies / Reſt to my Soul, and ſlumber to my Eyes.

   1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, page 29

   He at last fell into a slumber, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night.

   1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC

   1. broadlyA very heavy state of sleep.
2. figurativelyA state of ignorance or inaction.

   Marcel Duchamp's urinal and readymades seemed in the beginning to be insider jokes or jokelike paradoxes meant to awaken people from their aesthetic slumbers.

   2009, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity

3. rareThe snooze button on an alarm clock.

present singular third person slumbers · participle present slumbering · participle past slumbered · past slumbered · alternative obsolete slumbre

1. intransitiveTo be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.

   He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalm 121:4

   1 more example

   If Sleep and Death be truly one, ⁠And every spirit’s folded bloom ⁠Thro’ all its intervital gloom In some long trance should slumber on; […]

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 65

2. intransitiveTo be inactive or negligent.
3. obsoletetransitiveTo lay to sleep.

   slumber his conscience

   1642, Henry Wotton, A Short View of the Life and Death of George Villers, Duke of Buckingham

4. obsoletetransitiveTo stun; to stupefy.

   Then vp he tooke the slombred sencelesse corse.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC