Wiktionary

sleeper

See also: Sleeper

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/
  • Hyphenation: sleep‧er
  • Audio (Australia):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːpə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

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From Middle English sleper, equivalent to sleep +‎ -er.[1]

Noun

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sleeper (plural sleepers)

  1. Someone who sleeps.
    I'm a light sleeper: I get woken up by the smallest of sounds.
    She's a heavy sleeper: it takes a lot to wake her up.
    • 1986 August 28, Patricia Leigh Brown, “17 YEARS OF THE WATER BED: A SOCIAL HISTORY; CHECKING OUT REFINEMENTS”, in The New York Times‎[1], archived from the original on 3 February 2018:
      Waveless mattresses are for those who prefer a more stationary [night's sleep]; semiwaveless for those who want a slight rocking motion, and free-flow for sleepers who want the feel of a boat. All beds come with temperature controls, and king- and queen-size models offer dual controls.
  2. That which lies dormant, as a law.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      Therefore let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judged confined in the execution […]
    • 1958, Duncan Leroy Kennedy, Bill drafting, page 12:
      The object of these provisions is to prevent insertion of "jokers" or "sleepers" in bills and securing passage under the false color of the title.
  3. A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
    Synonym: sleeper agent
    • 1969, United States Congress, Departments of Treasury and Post Office and Executive Office Appropriations for 1970: Hearings, (91st Congress, First Session, parts 2-3), page 479:
      We are up against the pros; and pros who have been involved in this kind of activity for many years. […] The public apathy today is disturbing — few realize, Mr. Chairman, that there are sleepers in this country and we know that they are able to manipulate at will behind the scenes.
  4. A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
    • 1984, Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock:
      His skull earring had been replaced by a small gold sleeper. […] Fiona, who also had pierced ears, remarked on his sleeper. “Doesn’t Wilton allow pierced ears?” she asked. “No way!” said Leslie. “Rules about everything. But I wanted to keep my options open, as you might say. No one’s made me take it out yet. […] ”
  5. A railway sleeping car.
    We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
    • 1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:
      It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.
  6. (furniture) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    • 1980, Montgomery Ward, “‘Country Charm’ slipcovers and all the important accessories”, in Fall & Winter ’80, Chicago, Ill., →OCLC, page 1278, column 1:
      Detailed floral stripe on sofas, sleepers and loveseats with correlating provincial print on double ruffle trim.
    • 2010 April 22, Joyce Cohen, “Slobproof Sofas and Chairs”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 April 2010:
      The Slobproof line — made with a softer, more supple version of Crypton Ms. Weiner developed with the manufacturer — includes sectionals, sleepers, sofas and chairs (the Jacob chair, above left, is $975).
    • 2024 December 12, Joshua Lyon, “The Best Sleeper Sofas”, in Wirecutter‎[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 December 2024:
      The mechanism is far easier to maneuver than those found in classic sleepers (see video below). That’s because you’re lifting only two of the three panels—the third glides up or down against the back of the couch and easily slides into position whether you’re opening or closing the sleeper.
  7. This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    • 2021 June 7, Sasha Hupka, “Infant sleeper makers ignored safety warnings, report finds”, in Los Angeles Times‎[4], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 June 2021:
      Rock n’ Play and similar sleepers are padded bassinets that keep babies at a 10- to 30-degree angle, intended to help parents get babies to sleep. But a CPSC-funded study from 2018 concluded that the products’ design is dangerous. Regulators warn that infants unrestrained in the sleepers could roll on to their stomachs during sleep and suffocate.
    • 2022 June 15, April Rubin, “Infants Died in Fisher-Price Seats That Are Not for Sleep, Safety Commission Said”, in The New York Times‎[5], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 June 2022:
      A different company product, a Fisher-Price sleeper, was recalled in 2019 after being linked with at least 10 deaths. Sleepers and rockers are similar products, said Dr. Ben Hoffman, chair of the Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention of the American Academy of Pediatrics. They both place the infant at an incline.
    • 2022 September 21, Bek Day, “Safe infant sleep: consumer groups say Australian product regulation lags”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[6], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 September 2022:
      Since 2001, approximately two babies per year in Australia have died while using inclined infant products such as rocking sleepers, with an additional one death per year linked to other sleep items such as cots, inflatable beds and mattresses. […] In New Zealand, where no deaths linked to inclined sleepers have been reported, the government preemptively banned anything with an incline greater than seven degrees.
  8. (martial arts, wrestling) A sleeper hold.
  9. Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.
    Synonym: sleeper hit
    A box-office bomb when it first came out, the film was a sleeper, becoming much more popular decades after being released.
    • 1968, Marvin B. Scott, The Racing Game, page 160:
      For example, the [racehorse] trainer may have tipped a betting syndicate that he is about to unleash a sleeper […]
  10. Any member of the family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.
  11. A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
  12. (clothing) A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
    Alternative form: sleepers
    Aaron, Devin, and Laura looked so comfy in their sleepers.
  13. (automotive, slang) An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly stock appearance in order to fool opponents in a drag race, or to avoid the attention of the police.
    Antonyms: cop magnet, rice burner, racecar
  14. (slang, pharmacology) A sedative.
    • 1995, “Insomnia”, in Reverence, performed by Faithless:
      At least a couple of weeks since I last slept, / Kept takin' sleepers, but now I keep myself pepped.
    • 2017 October 21, Ellie Cannon, “ASK DR ELLIE: Why do I have itchy arms in the autumn and is insomnia a warning of Dementia?”, in Daily Mail‎[7], London: DMG Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 November 2017:
      Major trials show an association between the use of 'sleepers' known as benzodiazepines and an increased risk of developing dementia.
  15. (slang, gambling) A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.
  16. (science fiction) A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.
Synonyms
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Coordinate terms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → Swedish: sliper
  • → Welsh: sliper
Translations
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type of pajamas that covers the whole body

Verb

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sleeper (third-person singular simple present sleepers, present participle sleepering, simple past and past participle sleepered)

  1. (rare) To mark a calf by cutting its ear.
    • 1963, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 81:
      I expect there ain't a trick to maverickin' and sleeperin' and changin' a brand he don't know.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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The short wooden bars are sleepers, and the long metal bars are rails.

Compare Norwegian sleip (“a sleeper (a timber); as adjective, slippery, smooth”). See slape.

Noun

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sleeper (plural sleepers)

  2. (rail transport, UK) A railroad tie.
    Synonym: (US) tie
    • 1901 [1878], chapter 31, in Constance Garnett, transl., Anna Karenina‎[8], translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, part 7:
      "There," she said to herself, looking into the shadow of the carriage, at the sand and coal dust which covered the sleepers— "there, in the very middle, and I will punish him and escape from everyone and from myself."
    • 1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40:
      The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates.
    • 1961 July, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 401:
      I should imagine that the smooth riding and the quietness of the diesel or electric cab, coupled with the effect on the eyes of endless successions of sleepers disappearing from sight immediately under the driver's eyes, might in time have a soporific effect, so that the company of a second man, who can assist in signal observations when he is not at work in the engine cab, seems highly desirable in such conditions.
    • 2009, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower:
      Government surveyors set to work, importing hundreds of Indian coolies, thousands of donkeys and camels, and the millions of sleepers required for this monstrous engineering project.
  3. (carpentry) A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
  4. (nautical) A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
  5. (nautical) The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.
Derived terms
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Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “sleeper, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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