Word.ws English Dictionary

sleep a wink

sleep a wink verb: to sleep at all.

Verb

sleep a wink (third-person singular simple present sleeps a wink, present participle sleeping a wink, simple past and past participle slept a wink)

  1. (idiomatic) To sleep at all.
    • I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink1968, “I'm So Tired”, in John Lennon (lyrics), The Beatles, performed by the Beatles

Forms of sleep a wink

third-person singular presentsleeps a wink
present participlesleeping a wink
past participleslept a wink
pastslept a wink

Origin of sleep a wink

From Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" Act III Scene IV.

Questions about sleep a wink

What does sleep a wink mean?
Sleep a wink means to sleep at all.
What part of speech is sleep a wink?
Sleep a wink is a verb.
What is the past tense of sleep a wink?
The past tense of sleep a wink is slept a wink.

Words near sleep a wink in the dictionary

  1. sleekstones
  2. sleeky
  3. Sleeman
  4. Sleemans
  5. sleep
  6. sleep a wink
  7. sleep aid
  8. sleep apnea
  9. sleep apneas
  10. sleep apnoea
  11. sleep apnoeas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleep a wink (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-sleep a wink.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sleep a wink.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sleep_a_wink. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.