sleep

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“
So my sleep was a long sleep, and nothing broke it until I woke of myself, and found only the great dog Vig in the hut, and breakfast ready set out for me, while outside the ground was white with snow I was glad to find that no watch was kept on me, for it seemed as if Hubba's words were indeed true, and that the jarls believed my story.

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Definitions (53)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (20)

  1. noun A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming.
  2. noun A period of this form of rest.
  3. noun A state of inactivity resembling or suggesting sleep; unconsciousness, dormancy, hibernation, or death.
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Examples (50)

  • In his later years, he felt as if an intrusion upon his meals or his sleep was a personal affront and he left strict instructions with everyone in the household that he was not to be interrupted. —  Jackson, Lisa - See How she dies 2
  • From the next room, the deep, even sound of his sleep was a melody to her ears. —  Chapter One
  • I never knew him to be otherwise than sleepy, and his sleep was always stolen. —  THE ENGLISH GOVERNESS AT THE SIAMESE COURT
  • Up, you lump-kin daughters, up!—or this sleep is your last The goodwife ducks her eyes away, as if Margarethe has been only a chirping jackdaw on the sill. —  Maguire, Gregory - Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - UC [.html].htm
  • When Scott entered the hovel, he found everything silent, and inferred from the looks of the good women in attendance that the patient had fallen asleep, and that they feared his sleep was the final one. —  Sir Walter Scott
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

dream ·  slumber ·  peace ·  silence ·  pain ·  rest ·  repose ·  food ·  drink ·  heat ·  comfort ·  death

Used in the same contextWord Family

sleep:   slept ·  sleeping ·  sleeps
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English slepe, from Old English slæp; see slēb- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English slepen, slapen, sclepen, sclapen (preterit slepte, past participle sleped, slept, also, as orig., with strong forms, preterit slep, sleep, slæp, plural slepen), from Anglo-Saxon slǣpan, slēpan, sometimes slāpan (preterit slēp, past participle slǣpen, also sometimes weak preterit slǣpte, slēpte, slēpde) = Old Saxon slāpan = OFries. slēpa = Dutch slapen = Middle Low German Low German slapen = Old High German slāfan, Middle High German slāfen, German schlafen = Gothic (Moesogothic) slēpan (redupl. Pret. saislēp), sleep; cf. Middle Low German Low German slap (later G. schlapp) = Old High German Middle High German slaf, German schlaff, lax, loose, feeble, weak, = Danish slap = Swedish slapp, lax, loose (= Anglo-Saxon as if *slæp, an adjective related to slǣpan, sleep, as læt, late. to lǣtan, let); akin to Old Bulgarian slabŭ, lax, weak; Latin labare, totter, sink, be loosened, labi, fall, slide: see labent, lapse. No cognate form of this verb is found in Scandinavian (where another verb, cognate with the L., Greek, and Sanskrit words for ‘sleep,’ appears: see sweven).
  2. from Middle English sleep, slepe, slep, slape, slæp, from Anglo-Saxon slǣp = Old Saxon slāp = OFries. slēp = Dutch slaap = Middle Low German Low German slāp = Old High German Middle High German slāf, German schlaf = Gothic (Moesogothic) slēps, sleep; from the verb.
 

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/slip/
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by Reed Zitting

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