Part 465

2. Figuratively: (a) To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.

We sleep over our happiness.

Atterbury.

(b) To be dead; to lie in the grave.

Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

1 Thess. iv. 14.

(c) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant; as, a question sleeps for the present; the law sleeps.

How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank!

Shak.

Sleep, v. t. 1. To be slumbering in; -- followed by a cognate object; as, to sleep a dreamless sleep. Tennyson.

2. To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to lodge. [R.] Blackw. Mag.

To sleep away, to spend in sleep; as, to sleep away precious time. -- To sleep off, to become free from by sleep; as, to sleep off drunkeness or fatigue.

Sleep, n. [AS. slp; akin to OFries. slp, OS. slp, D. slaap, OHG. slf, G. schlaf, Goth. slps. See Sleep, v. i.] A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, as well as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man that waketh of his sleep." Chaucer.

O sleep, thou ape of death.

Shak.

Sleep is attended by a relaxation of the muscles, and the absence of voluntary activity for any rational objects or purpose. The pulse is slower, the respiratory movements fewer in number but more profound, and there is less blood in the cerebral vessels. It is susceptible of greater or less intensity or completeness in its control of the powers.

Sleep of plants (Bot.), 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.

Syn. -- Slumber; repose; rest; nap; doze; drowse.

Sleep"-at-noon" (?), n. (Bot.) A plant (Tragopogon pratensis) which closes its flowers at midday; a kind of goat's beard. Dr. Prior.

Sleep"-charged` (?), a. Heavy with sleep.

Sleep"er (?), n. 1. One who sleeps; a slumberer; hence, a drone, or lazy person.

2. That which lies dormant, as a law. [Obs.] Bacon.

3. A sleeping car. [Colloq. U.S.]

4. (Zoöl.) An animal that hibernates, as the bear.

5. (Zoöl.) (a) A large fresh-water gobioid fish (Eleotris dormatrix). (b) A nurse shark. See under Nurse.

Sleep"er, n. [Cf. Norw. sleip a sleeper (a timber), as adj., slippery, smooth. See Slape.] Something lying in a reclining posture or position. Specifically: --

(a) One of the pieces of timber, stone, or iron, on or near the level of the ground, for the support of some superstructure, to steady framework, to keep in place the rails of a railway, etc.; a stringpiece.

(b) One of the joists, or roughly shaped timbers, laid directly upon the ground, to receive the flooring of the ground story. [U.S.]