sleep

Verb

sleep (third-person singular simple present sleeps, present participle sleeping, simple past and past participle slept)

1. (intransitive) To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.

   You should sleep 8 hours a day.

2. (intransitive) (Of a spinning top or a yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
   • 1854, Anne E. Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases

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

   When a top is sleeping, it is spinning but not precessing.

3. (transitive) To cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
   • 1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters (page 158)

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

4. (transitive) To accommodate in beds.

   This caravan can sleep up to four people.

5. (transitive) To be slumbering in (a state).

   to sleep a dreamless sleep

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Tennyson to this entry?)

6. (intransitive) To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
   • Atterbury

     We sleep over our happiness.

7. (intransitive) To be dead; to lie in the grave.
   • Bible, 1 Thessalonians iv. 14

     Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

8. (intransitive) To 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

   • Shakespeare

     How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

9. (computing, intransitive) to wait for a period of time without performing any action

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

Noun

sleep (countable and uncountable, plural sleeps)

1. (uncountable) The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.

   I really need some sleep.

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

2. (countable, informal) An act or instance of sleeping.

   I’m just going to have a quick sleep.

3. (uncountable) Rheum found in the corner of the eyes after waking, whether real or a figurative objectification of sleep (in the sense of reduced consciousness).

   Wipe the sleep from your eyes.

4. 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.
   • 1843, Joh Müller, John Bell, Elements of Physiology, page 808:

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

Noun

sleep m (plural slepen, diminutive sleepje n)

1. (the act of) dragging, towing
2. train, the part of wedding gown that drags behind the bride

Verb

sleep

1. singular past indicative of slijpen

Verb

sleep

1. first-person singular present indicative of slepen
2. imperative of slepen

Related terms

• slepen

Descendants

• English: sleep