sleeps

Noun

sleep (countable and uncountable, plural sleeps)

1. (uncountable) The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.
   • I really need some sleep.
2. (countable, informal) An act or instance of sleeping.
   • I’m just going to have a quick sleep.
3. (informal, metonymically) A night.
   • There are only three sleeps till Christmas!
4. (uncountable) Rheum, crusty or gummy discharge found in the corner of the eyes after waking, whether real or a figurative objectification of sleep (in the sense of reduced consciousness).
   • When she had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and wept till she was tired, she set out on her way and walked for many, many a day, till she at last came to a big mountain.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 233
5. A state of plants, usually at night, when their leaflets approach each other and the flowers close and droop, or are covered by the folded leaves.
   • The daily sleep of plants, and their winter sleep, present in this respect exactly similar phenomena[…]1843, Joh Müller, John Bell, Elements of Physiology, page 808

   Synonyms:

   nyctinasty, nyctitropism

6. The hibernation of animals.

See all 18 meanings of sleep