Word.ws English Dictionary

sleep on

sleep on verb: to postpone (a decision) at least overnight, to avoid making a hasty choice.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To postpone (a decision) at least overnight, to avoid making a hasty choice.
    • I like the idea, but let me sleep on it before we go ahead.
    • There's no chance to sleep on the matter. You have to decide now.
  2. (idiomatic, slang) To miss or ignore; to underappreciate; to underestimate the quality of something.
    • People are really sleeping on that restaurant down the street.
    • I can't believe I slept on that movie for so long.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sleep, on.

Forms of sleep on

third-person singular presentsleeps on
present participlesleeping on
past participleslept on
pastslept on

Questions about sleep on

What does sleep on mean?
Sleep on means to postpone (a decision) at least overnight, to avoid making a hasty choice.
What part of speech is sleep on?
Sleep on is a verb.
What is the past tense of sleep on?
The past tense of sleep on is slept on.

Words near sleep on in the dictionary

  1. sleep modes
  2. sleep nappies
  3. sleep nappy
  4. sleep of the just
  5. sleep off
  6. sleep on
  7. sleep one off
  8. sleep out
  9. sleep over
  10. sleep paralyses
  11. sleep paralysis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleep on (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 on.ogg.

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