sleep Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended
    slumber.
    • he didn't get enough sleep last night
    • calm as a child in dreamless slumber
  2. noun a torpid state resembling deep sleep
    sopor.
  3. noun a period of time spent sleeping
    nap.
    • he felt better after a little sleep
    • there wasn't time for a nap
  4. noun euphemisms for death (based on an analogy between lying in a bed and in a tomb)
    eternal sleep; quietus; eternal rest; rest.
    • she was laid to rest beside her husband
    • they had to put their family pet to sleep
  5. verb be asleep
    catch some Z's; slumber; kip; log Z's.
  6. verb be able to accommodate for sleeping
    • This tent sleeps six people

WordNet

Sleep
Definitions
obs.
  1. imp. of Sleep. Slept. Chaucer.
Sleep intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. slepen, AS. slpan; akin to OFries. slpa, OS. slapan, D. slapen, OHG. slafan, G. schlafen, Goth. slpan, and G. schlaff slack, loose, and L. labi to glide, slide, labare to totter. Cf. Lapse.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Slept ; present participle & verbal noun Sleeping
Definitions
  1. To take rest by a suspension of the voluntary exercise of the powers of the body and mind, and an apathy of the organs of sense; to slumber. Chaucer.
    Watching at the head of these that sleep. Milton.
  2. Figuratively: (a) To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
    We sleep over our happiness. Atterbury.
    (b) To be dead; to lie in the grave.
    Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thess. iv. 14.
    (c) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant; as, a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps.
    How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank! Shak.
Sleep transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be slumbering in; -- followed by a cognate object; as, to sleep a dreamless sleep. Tennyson.
  2. To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to lodge. R. Blackw. Mag.
Sleep noun
Etymology
AS. slp; akin to OFries. slp, OS. slap, D. slaap, OHG. slaf, G. schlaf, Goth. slps. See Sleep, v. i.
Definitions
  1. A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, as well as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man that waketh of his sleep." Chaucer.
    O sleep, thou ape of death. Shak.
    ✍ Sleep is attended by a relaxation of the muscles, and the absence of voluntary activity for any rational objects or purpose. The pulse is slower, the respiratory movements fewer in number but more profound, and there is less blood in the cerebral vessels. It is susceptible of greater or less intensity or completeness in its control of the powers. the dreaming portions of sleep occurs periodically, and is associated with "rapid eye movements" (REM), and in this state the sleeper is more easily wakened; the dreamiong alternates with a more profound sleep, from which it is more difficult to awake the sleeper. Syn. -- Slumber; repose; rest; nap; doze; drowse.

Webster 1913