sleepy
/ˈsliːpi/
sleepy adjective: tired; feeling the need for sleep.
Adjective
sleepy (comparative sleepier, superlative sleepiest)
- Tired; feeling the need for sleep.
- She wak'd her sleepy crew.1700, [John] Dryden, “Cymon and Iphigenia, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- tired
- Suggesting tiredness.
- At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles...1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus
- Synonyms:
- jaded, weary, bleareyed, bleary, bleary-eyed, bone-tired, bushed, tired out, spent, wrecked
- Tending to induce sleep.
- a sleepy drink or potion
- [T]he yong L. Roger Mortimer, […] hauing corrupted his Keepers, or (as ſome others vvrite) hauing potioned them vvith a ſleepy drinke, eſcaped out of the Tovver of London, getting ouer clearely vvithout any empeachment into France.1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Edward the Second, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John...
- Synonyms:
- hypnotic, soporific, dormitive, hypnic, slumberous, somniferous, somnific, somnolent, soporiferous, soporous
- Dull; lazy.
- 'Tis not sleepy business;
But must be looked to speedily and strongly.1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- 'Tis not sleepy business;
- Quiet; without bustle or activity.
- a sleepy English village
- Experts believe a pandemic welfare programme for poorer Brazilians has encouraged robbers to plan bold raids in sleepy regional cities where bank branches are storing more cash.2021 August 30, “Armed robbers take hostages in deadly bank raids in Brazil city”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
Noun
sleepy (countable and uncountable, plural sleepies)
- The gum that builds up in the eye; sleep, gound.
- "Did he always leave the sleepy in his eyes?" "Never removed it; let it build up in the comers of his eyes over the weeks until it was heavy enough to fall […]1964, Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion
- But the nightdress was heavy, the sleepy in her eyes was heavy, her hair (she made a mustache of one of its locks) was heavy and smelled of cigarettes […]1991, Martin Amis, London Fields
- Synonyms:
- sleep
- Shingleback.
Verb
sleepy
- To sleep.
- Gabe stays up far too late and gets up far too early and spends far too many hours at the studio. Gabe is trying to get his records produced, and to get all his other work done before Gabe flies out to frisco for AES. Gabe go sleepy now.1994 November 4, Gabe Wiener, “Micing a solo piano (acoustic)”, in rec.audio.pro (Usenet), archived from the original on 02 Aug 2026
- im going to sleep BEING UP 28 hours is not good for my health so. ill see you all tomorrow!2000 August 20, j e s s aka robobitch, “i go sleepy bye”, in alt.fan.hanson (Usenet), archived from the original on 02 Aug 2026
sleepy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sleepy in Hindi
- feeling the need for sleep
- उनींदा unīndā, निद्रालु nidrālu
sleepy in Tamil
- feeling the need for sleep
- மந்தமான mantamāṉa
sleepy in Marathi
- feeling the need for sleep
- झोपाळू jhopāḷū
sleepy in Urdu
- خواب آلودہ
More languagesFewer languages
- sleepy in Bengali
- তন্দ্রালু, ঘুমন্ত
- sleepy in Malayalam
- ഉറങ്ങുന്ന, അലസമായ, ജാഗ്രതയില്ലാത്ത, ഉറക്കമുള്ള
- sleepy in Kannada
- ಒರಕು ತೂಗುವ
- sleepy in Tagalog
- inaantok
- sleepy in Arabic
- نَعْسَان naʕsān, نَاعِس nāʕis
- sleepy in Malay
- mengantuk
- sleepy in Indonesian
- mengantuk, ngantuk
- sleepy in Persian
- خواب آلود xâb âlud
- sleepy in Thai
- เหนื่อย nʉ̀ai, ง่วง ngûuang
Examples of sleepy in a sentence
- There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus:
- Usually sleepy border crossings into Kazakhstan and Mongolia have also been overwhelmed by the sudden influx of Russians looking for a way out.2022 September 23, Pjotr Sauer, Dan Sabbagh, “Border queues build as people flee Russia to escape Putin's call-up”, in Katharine Viner...
- Despite Horwich's international fame as a centre of railway engineering, Horwich station itself was usually quite a sleepy place.2023 March 8, Paul Salveson, “Fond farewells to two final trains...”, in Rail, number 978, page 54:
- The meeting has put Pakistan at the center of the biggest story in the world, spotlighting its normally sleepy capital that has been preparing for days for high-profile delegations to arrive.2026 April 12, Betsy Joles, “No Deal: U.S.-Iran peace talks in Islamabad fall through”, in National Public Radio, Washington, D.C....
Synonyms of sleepy
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of sleepy
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | sleepier |
| superlative | sleepiest |
| alternative form | sleeby |
| Noun | |
| plural | sleepies |
Origin of sleepy
From Middle English slepy, from Old English *slǣpiġ (attested in unslǣpiġ (“sleepless”)), from Proto-West Germanic *slāpag (“sleepy”), equivalent to sleep + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian släipich (“sleepy”), West Frisian sliepich (“sleepy”), dialectal Dutch slapig, slepig (“sleepy”), German Low German slapig, släpig, slöpig (“sleepy”), archaic German schlafig (“sleepy”).
Words formed from sleepy
Phrases with sleepy
Words that rhyme with sleepy
Questions about sleepy
- What does sleepy mean?
- Sleepy means tired; feeling the need for sleep.
- What is sleepy in Hindi?
- Sleepy in Hindi is उनींदा (unīndā), निद्रालु (nidrālu). See Sleepy meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sleepy in a sentence?
- There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.
- What part of speech is sleepy?
- Sleepy can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sleepy?
- Sleepy is pronounced /ˈsliːpi/.
Words near sleepy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sleepy (page history and authors); sleepy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleepy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleepy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sleepy (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-us-sleepy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sleepy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sleepy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.