Meaning of sleep
Pronunciation: (slēp), [key]
— v., n. slept, sleep•ing,
- to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness; cease being awake.
- to assume, esp. at night, a state similar to the sleep of animals, marked by closing of petals, leaves, etc.
- to be dormant, quiescent, or inactive, as faculties.
- to be careless or unalert; allow one's alertness, vigilance, or attentiveness to lie dormant: While England slept, Germany prepared for war.
- to lie in death: They are sleeping in their tombs.
- to take rest in (a specified kind of sleep): He slept the sleep of the innocent.
- to accommodate for sleeping; have sleeping accommodations for: This trailer sleeps three people.
- to spend or pass in sleep (usually fol. by away or out): to sleep the day away.
- to recover from the effects of (a headache, hangover, etc.) by sleeping (usually fol. by off or away).
- to have sexual relations with many partners, esp. in a casual way; be sexually promiscuous.
- (esp. of domestic help) to sleep where one is employed.
- to sleep beyond one's usual time of arising.
- to postpone making a decision about for at least a day: to sleep on a proposal till the end of the week.
- (esp. of domestic help) to sleep away from one's place of employment.
- Chiefly Northern U.S.to sleep away from one's home.
- to sleep outdoors.
- to spend one or more nights in a place other than one's own home: Two friends will sleep over this weekend.
- to be sexual partners; have a sexual relationship.
- to have sexual relations with.
- the state of a person, animal, or plant that sleeps.
- a period of sleeping: a brief sleep.
- dormancy or inactivity.
- the repose of death.
- sleeper (def. 10).
- put to sleep, to put (an animal) to death in a humane way: to put a sick old dog to sleep.
- sleep (Thesaurus)