sleep: Meaning and Definition of

sleep

1. to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness; cease being awake.
2. to assume, esp. at night, a state similar to the sleep of animals, marked by closing of petals, leaves, etc.
3. to be dormant, quiescent, or inactive, as faculties.
4. to be careless or unalert; allow one's alertness, vigilance, or attentiveness to lie dormant: While England slept, Germany prepared for war.
5. to lie in death: They are sleeping in their tombs.

1. to take rest in (a specified kind of sleep): He slept the sleep of the innocent.
2. to accommodate for sleeping; have sleeping accommodations for: This trailer sleeps three people.
3. to spend or pass in sleep (usually fol. by away or out): to sleep the day away.
4. to recover from the effects of (a headache, hangover, etc.) by sleeping (usually fol. by off or away).
5. to have sexual relations with many partners, esp. in a casual way; be sexually promiscuous.
1. (esp. of domestic help) to sleep where one is employed.
2. to sleep beyond one's usual time of arising.
7. to postpone making a decision about for at least a day: to sleep on a proposal till the end of the week.
1. (esp. of domestic help) to sleep away from one's place of employment.
2. Chiefly Northern U.S.to sleep away from one's home.
3. to sleep outdoors.
9. to spend one or more nights in a place other than one's own home: Two friends will sleep over this weekend.
10. to be sexual partners; have a sexual relationship.
11. to have sexual relations with.

1. the state of a person, animal, or plant that sleeps.
2. a period of sleeping: a brief sleep.
3. dormancy or inactivity.
4. the repose of death.
5. sleeper (def. 10).
6. put to sleep, to put (an animal) to death in a humane way: to put a sick old dog to sleep.