sleeper

Someone who sleeps.

Noun

  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.
    • 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...
  2. 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, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […],...
    • 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. - 1958, Duncan Leroy Kennedy, Bill drafting, page 12:
  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.
    • 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...

    Synonyms: sleeper agent

  4. A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
    • His skull earring had been replaced by a small gold sleeper.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....
  5. A railway sleeping car.
    • We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
    • 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...
  6. A sleeper hold.
  7. 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.
    • For example, the [racehorse] trainer may have tipped a betting syndicate that he is about to unleash a sleeper […] - 1968, Marvin B. Scott, The Racing Game, page 160:

    Synonyms: sleeper hit

  8. Any of family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.
  9. A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
  10. 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.
  11. 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

  12. A sedative.
    • At least a couple of weeks since I last slept, / Kept takin' sleepers, but now I keep myself pepped. - 1995, “Insomnia”, in Reverence, performed by Faithless:

Origin

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

Forms

sleepers

Synonyms

sleeper goby

Derived

bedside sleeper car-sleeper cold sleeper cosleeper dark sleeper daysleeper fat sleeper hot sleeper insleeper nonsleeper railway sleeper rough sleeper short sleeper short-sleeper sleeper account sleeper agent sleeper berth sleeper build sleeper bus sleeper cab sleeper cell sleeper effect sleeperette sleeper pick

Noun rail transport, railways

  1. A railroad tie.
    • 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...
    • 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...
    • 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, Michela Wrong, It’s Our Turn...

    Synonyms: tie

  2. A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
  3. A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
  4. The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.

Origin

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

Forms

sleepers

Derived

resleeper sleeperless

Verb

  1. 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, Jack Schaefer, Monte Walsh, page 81:

Forms

sleepers sleepering sleepered