Definition of "slumber"

slumber

/ˈslʌm.bə/

noun
plural slumbers
1. A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
  Quotations
  Fast asleep? It is no matter; / Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.
  1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
  Ev’n Luſt and Envy ſleep, yet Love deniesReſt to my Soul, and ſlumber to my Eyes.
  1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour […]‎, London: Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, published 1667, Act III, scene ii, page 29
  He at last fell into a slumber, and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night.
  1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […]; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, […], 1928,
2. (figurative) A state of ignorance or inaction.
  Quotations
  Marcel Duchamp's urinal and readymades seemed in the beginning to be insider jokes or jokelike paradoxes meant to awaken people from their aesthetic slumbers.
  2009, Ben-Ami Scharfstein, Art without borders: a philosophical exploration of art and humanity
3. (rare, as used by Magnavox clock radios) The snooze button on an alarm clock.
verb
third-person singular simple present slumbers, present participle slumbering, simple past and past participle slumbered
1. (intransitive) To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.
  Quotations
  He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalm 121:4
2. (intransitive) To be inactive or negligent.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To lay to sleep.
  Quotations
  slumber his conscience
  1642, Henry Wotton, A Short View of the Life and Death of George Villers, Duke of Buckingham
4. (transitive, obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
  Quotations
  Then vp he tooke the slombred sencelesse corse.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

Definition of "slumber"

slumber

noun

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verb

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