Word.ws English Dictionary

nodding off

nodding off is the present participle and gerund of nod off.

Meaning of nod off

Verb

nod off (third-person singular simple present nods off, present participle nodding off, simple past and past participle nodded off)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To fall asleep, especially unintentionally.
    • The old lady nodded off to sleep many times during the narration, only waking up when George paused, saying it was most interesting.1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter 53, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859...

Questions about nodding off

What is nodding off the present participle and gerund of?
Nodding off is the present participle and gerund of nod off.

Words near nodding off in the dictionary

  1. nodding blue lily
  2. nodding disease
  3. nodding donkey
  4. nodding donkeys
  5. nodding in
  6. nodding off
  7. nodding onion
  8. nodding out
  9. nodding syndrome
  10. nodding thistle
  11. nodding thistles

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nodding off (page history and authors); nod off (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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Cite this entry: “nodding off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nodding_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.