sleeping

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.
   • You should sleep eight hours a day.
2. (euphemistic, idiomatic) To have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).
   • Last night we slept together for the first time.
3. (transitive) To accommodate in beds.
   • This caravan can sleep four people comfortably.
4. (idiomatic, intransitive) To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
   • We ſleep over our Happineſs, Great as it is, and want to be rous'd into a quick and thankful ſenſe of it, either by an actual Change of Circumſtances, or by a Compariſon of our Own caſe with that of other Men.1706 October 8 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Sermon Preach’d in the Guild-Hall Chapel, London, Sept. 28. 1706. Being the Day of the Election of the Right Honourable the...
5. (euphemistic, idiomatic, intransitive) To be dead.
   • For if we beleeue that Ieſus died, and roſe againe: euen ſo them alſo which ſleepe in Ieſus, will God bring with him.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, column 2
6. (intransitive) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.
   • a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps

See all 18 meanings of sleep