put to sleep

Definitions

1. 1

   To cause (someone) to sleep.

   • His boring stories sometimes put me to sleep.
2. 2

   To help (someone) to bed.

   • After they'd put the kids to sleep, they relaxed by the fire and chatted.
3. 3

   To render dormant.

   • Our jealousy is only put to sleep by the unlimited confidence we all repose in the person to whom we all look as our president.
   • This is in accord with facts, for I can by cold put to sleep special parts of the nervous mass without putting other parts to sleep.
   • 1935, Edgar Allison Peers (translator), John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Chapter I, For there is no going forth from the pains and afflictions of the secret places of the desires until these be mortified and put to sleep.
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To kill an animal painlessly, often with an injection.

      • Near-synonym: put to bed with a shovel (cynical tone)
      • It was sad to put our beloved spaniel to sleep, but it was better than letting him suffer.
      • In one instance where a large number of dogs were put to sleep in the lethal chamber, one was found in deepest sleep, but still breathing, side by side and partly covered by another that was not only dead but cold and rigid.
   2. 5

      To give a general anesthetic prior to surgery.

      • Mommy's surgery is not a big operation but it does require that they put her to sleep for a while.

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