Word.ws English Dictionary

dogsleep

dogsleep noun: light or fitful sleep; a nap that is easily interrupted.

Noun

dogsleep (uncountable)

  1. Light or fitful sleep; a nap that is easily interrupted.
    • This was Gabriel Varden's state as, nodding in his dog sleep, and leaving his horse to pursue a road with which he was well acquainted, he got over the ground unconsciously, and drew nearer and nearer home.1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 3, in Barnaby Rudge
    • [M]any of the convicts made up for their lack of rest by snatching a dog-sleep in the bared bunks.1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Penguin, published 2009, page 65
  2. (obsolete) Feigned sleep.
    • Juvenal, indeed, mentions a drowsy husband, who raised an estate by snoring, but then he is represented to have slept what the common people call dog's sleep1711 October 11 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “SUNDAY, October 1, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 184; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume...

Forms of dogsleep

alternative formdog-sleep
alternative formdog sleep
alternative formdog's sleep

Origin of dogsleep

From dog + sleep.

Questions about dogsleep

What does dogsleep mean?
Dogsleep means light or fitful sleep; a nap that is easily interrupted.
What part of speech is dogsleep?
Dogsleep is a noun.

Words near dogsleep in the dictionary

  1. dogsledded
  2. dogsledder
  3. dogsledders
  4. dogsledding
  5. dogsleds
  6. dogsleep
  7. DOGSO
  8. dogsona
  9. dogsonas
  10. DOGSOs
  11. dogspeak

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dogsleep (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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