Sekirov Dictionary

sleeper

/ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/

noun 18
verb 1
forms 3
phrases 1

noun18

•
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.
•
A railway sleeping car.
- We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
•
(UK) A railroad tie.
- 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. — 2009
A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
•
Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.
- A box-office bomb when it first came out, the film was a sleeper, becoming much more popular decades after being released.
•
That which lies dormant, as a law.
- 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 […] — 1625
A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
•
A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
- Aaron, Devin, and Laura looked so comfy in their sleepers.
•
(slang) A sedative.
- At least a couple of weeks since I last slept, / Kept takin' sleepers, but now I keep myself pepped. — 1995
•
A sleeper hold.
- Detailed floral stripe on sofas, sleepers and loveseats with correlating provincial print on double ruffle trim. — 1980
(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.
A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.
Any member of the family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.
A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
(slang) A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.
The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.

verb1

•
(rare) To mark a calf by cutting its ear.
- I expect there ain't a trick to maverickin' and sleeperin' and changin' a brand he don't know. — 1963

forms

sleepered · sleepering · sleepers

Phrases with sleeper

rough sleeper
A homeless person who sleeps outdoors.

This dictionary works without the internet: on your phone · in Chrome