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Sleep   /slip/   Listen
noun
Sleep  n.  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." "O sleep, thou ape of death." Note: 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.
Sleep of plants (Bot.), 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.
Synonyms: Slumber; repose; rest; nap; doze; drowse.



verb
Sleep  v. t.  (past & past part. slept; pres. part. sleeping)  
1.
To be slumbering in; followed by a cognate object; as, to sleep a dreamless sleep.
2.
To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to lodge. (R.)
To sleep away, to spend in sleep; as, to sleep away precious time.
To sleep off, to become free from by sleep; as, to sleep off drunkeness or fatigue.



Sleep  v. i.  (past & past part. slept; pres. part. sleeping)  
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. "Watching at the head of these that sleep."
2.
Figuratively:
(a)
To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly. "We sleep over our happiness."
(b)
To be dead; to lie in the grave. "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."
(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!"



Sleep  v.  obs. Imp. of Sleep. Slept.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sleep" Quotes from Famous Books



... Desclieux had left his room, for he always kept the sacred deposit with him. Every evening he watered it abundantly, and then let hot air into the frame by means of the tube, as he had been directed: he kept it as close as possible to him at night, that even during sleep he might administer heat to it. Never did bird brood over its young more fondly—never did nurse cherish more ...
— Tales for Young and Old • Various

... your book now, Lucy," said Emily, "and come and help me to dress this sweet little doll. I will be its mamma, and you shall be its nurse, and it shall sleep between ...
— The Fairchild Family • Mary Martha Sherwood

... among them who has not learnt to accompany the name of Pitt with an execration. When I went to bed, there was no sleep to be had on account of the sentinels thinking fit to amuse me the whole night through with the revenge they meant to take on him when they got him to Paris. Next morning I went on board the 'Experiment.' The Commodore and all his officers ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan

... he stepped ashore. "Well, now, by George! maybe that explains the thing. I've been bothering myself the worst kind to understand something. You know that I remember being at home in bed, and then I went to sleep somehow; and when I woke up, it was dark as pitch. I gave a kick to stretch myself, and knocked the lid off of this thing here—a canoe I thought it was; and then I set up and found myself out here in the river. I took the lid to split into paddles, and I ...
— Elbow-Room - A Novel Without a Plot • Charles Heber Clark (AKA Max Adeler)

... Murat fancied himself already in possession of it, and sent to inform the emperor that he might sleep there. But the Russian rear-guard had taken a position outside the walls of the town, and the remains of their army were placed on a height behind it. In this way they covered the Moscow and ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur


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