sleeper

Syllables: sleep·er/ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/

sleeper noun: someone who sleeps.

Image: Ellywa, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

sleeper (plural sleepers)

Someone who sleeps.
- I'm a light sleeper: I get woken up by the smallest of sounds.
- She's a heavy sleeper: it takes a lot to wake her up.
That which lies dormant, as a law.
- Therefore let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judged confined in the execution […]1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
- The object of these provisions is to prevent insertion of "jokers" or "sleepers" in bills and securing passage under the false color of the title.1958, Duncan Leroy Kennedy, Bill drafting, page 12
A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
- We are up against the pros; and pros who have been involved in this kind of activity for many years. […] The public apathy today is disturbing — few realize, Mr. Chairman, that there are sleepers in this country and we know that they are able to manipulate at will behind the scenes.1969, United States Congress, Departments of Treasury and Post Office and Executive Office Appropriations for 1970: Hearings, (91st Congress, First Session, parts 2-3), page 479
Synonyms:

sleeper agent
A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
- His skull earring had been replaced by a small gold sleeper. […] Fiona, who also had pierced ears, remarked on his sleeper. “Doesn’t Wilton allow pierced ears?” she asked. “No way!” said Leslie. “Rules about everything. But I wanted to keep my options open, as you might say. No one’s made me take...1984, Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock
A railway sleeping car.
- We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
- It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324
A sleeper hold.
- Detailed floral stripe on sofas, sleepers and loveseats with correlating provincial print on double ruffle trim.1980, Montgomery Ward, “‘Country Charm’ slipcovers and all the important accessories”, in Fall & Winter ’80, Chicago, Ill., →OCLC, page 1278, column 1
- The Slobproof line — made with a softer, more supple version of Crypton Ms. Weiner developed with the manufacturer — includes sectionals, sleepers, sofas and chairs (the Jacob chair, above left, is $975).2010 April 22, Joyce Cohen, “Slobproof Sofas and Chairs”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Apr 2010
Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.
- A box-office bomb when it first came out, the film was a sleeper, becoming much more popular decades after being released.
- For example, the [racehorse] trainer may have tipped a betting syndicate that he is about to unleash a sleeper […]1968, Marvin B. Scott, The Racing Game, page 160
Synonyms:

sleeper hit
Any member of the family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.

Synonyms:

sleeper goby
A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
- Aaron, Devin, and Laura looked so comfy in their sleepers.
(slang) An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly stock appearance in order to fool opponents in a drag race, or to avoid the attention of the police.

Antonyms:

cop magnet, rice burner, racecar
(slang) A sedative.
- At least a couple of weeks since I last slept, / Kept takin' sleepers, but now I keep myself pepped.1995, “Insomnia”, in Reverence, performed by Faithless
- Major trials show an association between the use of 'sleepers' known as benzodiazepines and an increased risk of developing dementia.2017 October 21, Ellie Cannon, “ASK DR ELLIE: Why do I have itchy arms in the autumn and is insomnia a warning of Dementia?”, in Daily Mail, London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...
(slang) A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.
A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.

Verb

sleeper (third-person singular simple present sleepers, present participle sleepering, simple past and past participle sleepered)

(rare) To mark a calf by cutting its ear.
- I expect there ain't a trick to maverickin' and sleeperin' and changin' a brand he don't know.1963, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 81

Noun (2)

sleeper (plural sleepers)

(UK) A railroad tie.
- "There," she said to herself, looking into the shadow of the carriage, at the sand and coal dust which covered the sleepers— "there, in the very middle, and I will punish him and escape from everyone and from myself."1901 [1878], chapter 31, in Constance Garnett, transl., Anna Karenina, translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, part 7
- The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates.1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40
Synonyms:

tie
A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.

Proper noun capitalized: Sleeper

Sleeper (plural Sleepers)

A surname.

sleeper meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sleeper in Hindi

शयनकर्ता

sleeper in Tamil

இருப்பூர்தித் துயிற் பெட்டி, தொடர்வண்டி துயில்பெட்டி, குறுக்குக் கட்டை, குறுக்குத் தாங்கிகள், கிடைக்கட்டை, தூங்குபவர்

sleeper in Marathi

someone who sleeps: झोपणारा jhopṇārā, झोपणारी jhopṇārī

sleeper in Urdu

سلیپر

More languagesFewer languages

sleeper in Telugu: స్లీపర్, నిద్రపోయేవాడు
sleeper in Malayalam: ഉറങ്ങുന്നവൻ, സ്ലീപ്പർകോച്ച്, ഉറക്കക്കാരൻ, തീവണ്ടിയിലെ ഉറങ്ങാനുള്ള സൗകര്യം
sleeper in Kannada: ಸ್ಲೀಪರ್, ನಿದ್ರೆಗಾರ, ನಿದ್ರೆ ಮಾಡುವವನು
sleeper in Punjabi: ਸਲੀਪਰ, ਸੌਣ ਵਾਲਾ
sleeper in Gujarati: ઊંઘનાર
sleeper in Odia: ଶଯ଼ନକାରୀ

Examples of sleeper in a sentence

Waveless mattresses are for those who prefer a more stationary [night's sleep]; semiwaveless for those who want a slight rocking motion, and free-flow for sleepers who want the feel of a boat.1986 August 28, Patricia Leigh Brown, “17 YEARS OF THE WATER BED: A SOCIAL HISTORY; CHECKING OUT REFINEMENTS”, in The New York Times...
His skull earring had been replaced by a small gold sleeper. […] Fiona, who also had pierced ears, remarked on his sleeper.1984, Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock:
The mechanism is far easier to maneuver than those found in classic sleepers (see video below).2024 December 12, Joshua Lyon, “The Best Sleeper Sofas”, in Wirecutter, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived...
Government surveyors set to work, importing hundreds of Indian coolies, thousands of donkeys and camels, and the millions of sleepers required for this monstrous engineering project.2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:

All 32 example sentences with sleeper

Synonyms of sleeper

sleeper agent
sleeper hit
sleeper goby
tie

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of sleeper

Forms of sleeper

Noun
plural	sleepers
Verb
third-person singular present	sleepers
present participle	sleepering
past participle	sleepered
past	sleepered
Proper noun
plural	Sleepers

Plural of sleeper: sleepers

Origin of sleeper

From Middle English sleper, equivalent to sleep + -er.

Compare Norwegian sleip (“a sleeper (a timber); as adjective, slippery, smooth”). See slape.

Phrases with sleeper

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sleeper

Questions about sleeper

What does sleeper mean?: Sleeper means someone who sleeps.
What is sleeper in Hindi?: Sleeper in Hindi is शयनकर्ता. See Sleeper meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sleeper in a sentence?: Waveless mattresses are for those who prefer a more stationary [night's sleep]; semiwaveless for those who want a slight rocking motion, and free-flow for sleepers who want the feel of a boat.
What part of speech is sleeper?: Sleeper can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sleeper?: Sleeper is pronounced /ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of sleeper?: The plural of sleeper is sleepers.

Words near sleeper in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleeper (page history and authors); Sleeper (page history and authors); sleeper (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sleeper (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleeper (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sleeper (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sleeper (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleeper (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sleeper (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sleeper (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sleeper (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sleeper.ogg.

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