Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Marked by a lack of sleep.
  • adjective Unable to sleep.
  • adjective Always alert or active; never resting.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being without sleep; wakeful.
  • Constantly watchful; vigilant: as, the sleepless eye of justice.
  • Restless; continually disturbed or agitated.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having no sleep; wakeful.
  • adjective Having no rest; perpetually agitated.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characterized by an absence of sleep.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective always watchful
  • adjective experiencing or accompanied by sleeplessness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sleep +‎ -less

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Examples

  • Likewise, standing shackled and sleepless is not torture if the duration is short, but it is torture when the duration is 180 hours.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » More on Liz Cheney 2010

  • Certainly Aftermath took its toll in sleepless nights.

    A Conversation with Peter Robinson 2010

  • But in so many married women sleeplessness and a consequent nervous condition are coupled with a lack of the complete sex relation, that one of the first questions a physician should put to those of his women patients who are worn and sleepless is whether her husband really fulfills his marital duty in their physical relation.

    Married Love: or, Love in Marriage 1918

  • At the moment she had felt that his casual words held a hidden meaning, and to this day, though she had pondered them in sleepless nights ever since, she was still undecided.

    The Miller of Old Church 1911

  • I was a little shaver, but recall the sleepless nights my parents never slept, worring about loosing our home and farm.

    Some Political Notes 2008

  • Sir Sydney still recalls sleepless nights spent thinking about minor details of construction or possible unsuspected weaknesses which might prove fatal to his airplane in the moment of com - bat or strains.

    The HurricaneStory Gallico, Paul 1959

  • When I recall the sleepless care with which Mrs. Stevenson watched over him at that critical point in his life, it seems to me that it is not too much to say that the world owes it to her that he lived to produce his best works.

    The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez 1895

  • Not, indeed, that the loss of sleep troubles me, for if any one could claim to be called the sleepless one, it would be I-- that is to say, when engaged in these arduous explorations, and curtained by night and the stars; but, although I can do without sleep, I require a certain amount of horizontal repose, and this I could not obtain in this fearful glen.

    Australia Twice Traversed, Illustrated, Ernest Giles 1866

  • Habibion recalls the sleepless nights on tour back in the 1990s with his old band Edsel, when Obits frontman Rick Froberg's former group, post-punk favorites Drive Like Jehu, would be playing in the background.

    New York Press 2009

  • Habibion recalls the sleepless nights on tour back in the 1990s with his old band Edsel, when Obits frontman Rick Froberg's former group, post-punk favorites Drive Like Jehu, would be playing in the background.

    AltWeeklies.com Site Feed 2009

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