sleeper

Etymology

Definitions

1. 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.
2. 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 […]
   • 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. 3

   A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a…

   A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.

4. ›+ 17 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.

   2. 5

      A railway sleeping car.

      • We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
   3. 6

      A sleeper hold.

   4. 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 […]
   5. 8

      Any of family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.

   6. 9

      A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).

   7. 10

      A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including…

      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.
   8. 11

      An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly…

      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.

   9. 12

      A sedative.

      • At least a couple of weeks since I last slept, / Kept takin' sleepers, but now I keep myself pepped.
   10. 13

       A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.

   11. 14

       A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.

   12. 15

       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.
   13. 16

       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 fishplates.
       • 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.
   14. 17

       A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and…

       A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.

   15. 18

       A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.

   16. 19

       The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.

   17. 20

       A surname.

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