Definition of "sleep"

sleep¹

/sliːp/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  We sleep in the bedroom.
  2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
2. (idiomatic, euphemistic) To have sexual intercourse (see sleep with).
3. (transitive) To accommodate in beds.
4. (intransitive) To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
  Quotations
  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 9 (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 Lord Mayor.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, page 407
5. (intransitive) To be dead.
  Quotations
  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, […], 1 Thessalonians 4:14, column 2
  It was that of a man in advanced life, with a long grizzled beard, and also robed in white, probably the husband of the lady, who, after surviving her many years, came at the last to sleep once more for good and all beside her.
  1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887
6. (intransitive) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.
  Quotations
  How ſweet the moone-light ſleepes vpon this banke, […]
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i], page 182, column 2
7. (computing, intransitive) To wait for a period of time without performing any action.
8. (computing, transitive) To place into a state of hibernation.
  Quotations
  Even when you have reasons not to sleep the computer, it's still a good idea to sleep the display after a period of time.
  2009, Mike Lee, Scott Meyers, Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard, page 91
9. (intransitive, mechanics, dynamics) To spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
  Quotations
  A top sleeps when it moves with such velocity, and spins so smoothly, that its motion is imperceptible.
  1854, Anne E. Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases
10. (transitive, mechanics, dynamics) To cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
  Quotations
  Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.
  1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters, page 158

sleep²

/sliːp/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural sleeps
1. (uncountable) The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.
2. (countable, informal) An act or instance of sleeping.
3. (informal, metonymically) A night.
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).
  Quotations
  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 Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 233
  But it ringsAnd we rise,Wipe the sleep out of our eyes […]
  1980, “Daydream Believer”‎performed by Anne Murray
  [...] and draw the medial canthus (aka medial commissure) at the medial extreme. Now draw the lacrimal caruncle at the medial corner of the eye, which produces whitish, oily fluid—it produces “sleep in the eye.”
  2017, Adam J. Fisch, Neuroanatomy: Draw It to Know It, Oxford University Press
  The part of the eyelid that is the location of the lacrimal caruncle, which produces rheum or "sleep," the gritty substance often present when awakening.
  2019, Jahangir Moini, Anatomy and Physiology for Health Professionals, Jones & Bartlett Learning , page 780, entry "Medial canthus"
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.
  Quotations
  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
6. The hibernation of animals.

Definition of "sleep"

sleep1

verb

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sleep2

noun

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sleep¹

sleep²