Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To sleep.
- v. To be dormant or quiescent.
- v. To pass (time) in sleep: slumbered the night away.
- n. Sleep.
- n. A state of inactivity or dormancy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To grow sleepy or drowsy; begin to sleep; fall asleep; also, to sleep lightly; doze.
- To sleep; sleep quietly.
- To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness, or inactivity.
- Synonyms and 2. Drowse, Doze, etc. See sleep.
- To lay to sleep; cause to slumber or sleep.
- To stun; stupefy.
- To cause to be latent; keep as if in a sleeping condition.
- n. Light sleep; sleep not deep or sound.
- n. Sleep, especially sound sleep.
- n. A sleeping state; sleep regarded as an act.
Wiktionary
- n. A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- v. intransitive To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake
- v. intransitive To be inactive
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To sleep; especially, to sleep lightly; to doze.
- v. To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness, or inactivity.
- v. rare To lay to sleep.
- v. obsolete To stun; to stupefy.
- n. Sleep; especially, light sleep; sleep that is not deep or sound; repose.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a dormant or quiescent state
- n. a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended
- v. be asleep
Etymologies
- From Middle English slomren, slombren, frequentive of slumen ("to doze"), probably from slume ("slumber"), from Old English sluma, akin to Middle High German slumen ("to slumber"). Non-Germanic cognates include Albanian gjumë ("sleep"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English slumeren, slumberen, frequentative of slumen, to doze, probably from slume, light sleep, from Old English slūma. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Waking up at 2: 30 without the power to fall back into slumber is disconcerting.”
“Now his mother, for long absence, had forsworn sleep and given herself to mourning and weeping and wailing, till she fell sick and ate no meat, neither took delight in slumber but shed tears night and day.”
“Abdullah was a-wearied with watching and wanted to sleep, they also lay beside him on another couch and waited till he wasdrowned in slumber and when they were certified thereof they arose and knelt upon him: whereupon he awoke and seeing them kneeling on his breast, said to them, “What is this, O my brothers?””
“Then he laid his sword under his head-pillow and slept; and when he was drowned in slumber Iblis tempted me to slay him; so I arose in haste, and drawing the sword from under his head, dealt him a blow that made his head fall from his body.”
“Daisy's eyes were closed; the knitted brow had smoothed itself out in slumber; the deep breath told how profound was the need that weakness and weariness had made.”
“The result was that one night, about midnight, when the Maharajah had retired and the rest of the palace was wrapped in slumber, the young prince collected a handful of followers, and with his brother”
“But on the opening of the busy week, yes, before we had closed our eyes in slumber on the Sabbath night, still more glorious tidings had come to us, and the joyous messages increased as each day brought us nearer to this day of blessed rest.”
“I had not been five minutes in slumber ere the whole amphitheatre was restored to its original perfection, its ruins half rebuilt, its arches, steps, its galleries and vomitories, all complete.”
“The curse of spiritual slumber is the just punishment of the sin of it, Rom. xi.”
“This slumber is short-lived, however, and he's soon woken by his partner - a red-headed Selkie named Keiss.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘slumber’.
-
bbc uk china vocab.
conservationists, estimate, threats, infertility, eating away at, endangered, furry, panel, in trouble, gongs, triumphed, caps and 1007 more...
-
FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)polythene, Sun King, rhythm and blues, taxman, tripper, monkey business, mailman, matchbox, rock and roll, ooh, blue jay, reprise and 388 more...
-
dream words
( randomness, dreams, creativity )
words or phrases related to all things dreamyphantasmagoria, illusion, imagination, slumber, sky, moon, cloud nine, lucid, fantasy, creativity, somnambulism, dreamer and 39 more...
-
Rest in Please
Sorry if I don't make a bunch of words
I'm. So. Sleepy.Rumpelstiltskin, forty winks, zzzzz, repose, rest, kip, slumber, noctambulo, aestivate, pandiculation, agrypnotic, jaded and 2 more...
-
[Open] Frequentative
“A verb which denotes the frequent occurrence or repetition of an action, as . . . waggle from wag.” — Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia.
Other examples include bobble (bob), bustle (b...dartle, stutter, agitate, dabble, waggle, aid, argue, daunt, expect, excite, espouse, dictate and 77 more...
-
I am : tired
Tired and sleepy words!
tired, weary, sleepy, exhausted, soporific, droopy, snooze, nap, dead-beat, shuteye, rinsed, groggy and 9 more...
-
Dream Words
phantasmagoria, illusion, imagination, ingenuity, slumber, bliss, airy, clouds, star, sky, moon, cloud nine and 2 more...
-
♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
Pretty Words
Words that sound pretty.
ethereal, ephemeral, iridescent, shimmer, wisp, whisper, charisma, crescent, azure, mystery, fantasy, miracle and 142 more...
-
the most beautiful
velvet, wainwright, susurrous, nutmeg, pegasus, tintinnabular, gossamer, lyricism, rococo, townlet, prince, nymph and 139 more...
-
strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
-
Dormancy
-
How very mikeropological..
Basically it's just mikeropology's words, but with his username turned into an adjectivally splendid list name.
mikeropology, squoze, anthropromorphism, mullu, spondylus, goobers, hipster, burnt umber, ochre, canvas, lapizure, burnt sienna and 172 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for slumber.

bilby
In a quiet water'd land, a land of roses,
Stands Saint Kieran's city fair;
And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations
Slumber there.
There beneath the dewy hillside sleep the noblest
Of the clan of Conn,
Each below his stone with name in branching Ogham
And the sacred knot thereon.
- T. W. Rolleston, 'The Dead at Clonmacnois'. Mar 23, 2009