siesta
UK/siˈɛstə/
siesta noun: a nap, especially an afternoon one taken during the hottest part of the day in some cultures.
Noun
siesta (plural siestas)
- A nap, especially an afternoon one taken during the hottest part of the day in some cultures.
- One humid afternoon a visitor did arrive to disturb Rottcodd as he lay deeply hammocked, for his siesta was broken sharply by a rattling of the door handle […]1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, →OCLC
- When it's time for siesta, you can watch them go by / Beautiful faces, no cares in this world1986, “La Isla Bonita”, in True Blue, performed by Madonna
- Laid-back attitudes to work or laziness, especially by a Hispanic person.
- Lest we think all of this is due to the proverbial inefficiency of the Latin American - 'siesta people' - we can see some of these signs, perhaps in a less dramatic way, in European societies and in the celebrated 'tigers' of South East Asia.2001 February 1, Stanley E. Porter, Michael A. Hayes, David Tombs, Faith in the Millennium, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 21
- I had eaten a simple lunch, and in the relaxed siesta attitude that pervaded the place I settled back in my chair and looked at the mountains behind in all their austerity.2010 February 22, Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 7: Our Own Time, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, →ISBN, page 238
- Synonyms:
- mañana
Verb
siesta (third-person singular simple present siestas, present participle siestaing, simple past and past participle siestaed)
- to take a siesta; to nap.
- Synonyms:
- siest
siesta meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
siesta in Tamil
- நண்பகல் குறுந்துயில்
siesta in Marathi
- an afternoon nap
- वामकुक्षी vāmkukṣī
siesta in Urdu
- an afternoon nap
- قیلولہ qailūla
siesta in Bengali
- দুপুরের বিশ্রাম, দিবানিদ্রা
More languagesFewer languages
- siesta in Malayalam
- ഉച്ചമയക്കം, ഉച്ചയുറക്കം, മദ്ധ്യാഹ്നനിദ്ര, പകലുറക്കം
- siesta in Kannada
- ಕಿತ್ತೊರಕು
- siesta in Tagalog
- siyesta
- siesta in Arabic
- قَيْلُولَة qaylūla
- siesta in Indonesian
- siesta
- siesta in Vietnamese
- ngủ trưa
Synonyms of siesta
Forms of siesta
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | siestas |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | siestas |
| present participle | siestaing |
| past participle | siestaed |
| past | siestaed |
Origin of siesta
Borrowed from Spanish siesta, from Latin sexta (“the sixth hour from dawn, noon, midday”). Doublet of sext.
Words that rhyme with siesta
Questions about siesta
- What does siesta mean?
- Siesta means a nap, especially an afternoon one taken during the hottest part of the day in some cultures.
- What is siesta in Tamil?
- Siesta in Tamil is நண்பகல் குறுந்துயில். See Siesta meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is siesta?
- Siesta can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce siesta?
- Siesta is pronounced /siˈɛstə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of siesta?
- The plural of siesta is siestas.
Words near siesta in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: siesta (page history and authors); siesta (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); siesta (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); siesta (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); siesta (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-siesta.ogg.
Cite this entry: “siesta.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/siesta. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.