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sleepy

adj
/ˈsliːpi/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *slēpaz Proto-West Germanic *slāp Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Proto-West Germanic *slāpag Old English *slǣpiġ Middle English slepy English sleepy From Middle English slepy, from Old English *slǣpiġ (attested in unslǣpiġ (“sleepless”)), from Proto-West Germanic *slāpag (“sleepy”), equivalent to sleep + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian släipich (“sleepy”), West Frisian sliepich (“sleepy”), dialectal Dutch slapig, slepig (“sleepy”), German Low German slapig, släpig, slöpig (“sleepy”), archaic German schlafig (“sleepy”).

  1. inherited from *slāpag✻ — “sleepy”
  2. inherited from *slǣpiġ✻
  3. inherited from slepy

Definitions

  1. Tired

    Tired; feeling the need for sleep.

    • She wak'd her sleepy crew.

  2. Suggesting tiredness.

  3. Tending to induce sleep.

    • a sleepy drink or potion
    • [T]he yong L. Roger Mortimer, […] hauing corrupted his Keepers, or (as ſome others vvrite) hauing potioned them vvith a ſleepy drinke, eſcaped out of the Tovver of London, getting ouer clearely vvithout any empeachment into France.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Dull

      Dull; lazy.

      • 'Tis not sleepy business; But must be looked to speedily and strongly.

    2. Quiet

      Quiet; without bustle or activity.

      • a sleepy English village
      • Experts believe a pandemic welfare programme for poorer Brazilians has encouraged robbers to plan bold raids in sleepy regional cities where bank branches are storing more cash.
      • Usually sleepy border crossings into Kazakhstan and Mongolia have also been overwhelmed by the sudden influx of Russians looking for a way out.

    3. The gum that builds up in the eye

      The gum that builds up in the eye; sleep, gound.

      • "Did he always leave the sleepy in his eyes?" "Never removed it; let it build up in the comers of his eyes over the weeks until it was heavy enough to fall […]
      • But the nightdress was heavy, the sleepy in her eyes was heavy, her hair (she made a mustache of one of its locks) was heavy and smelled of cigarettes […]

    4. Shingleback.

The neighborhood

Derived

eep, eepy, nonsleepy, sleepily, sleepiness, sleepy-bye, sleepy-byes, sleepy catchfly, sleepy cod, sleepy crab, sleepy distemper, sleepy-dust, sleepy dust, sleepy goby, sleepy head, sleepyhead, Sleepy Hollow, Sleepy Joe, sleepy sand, sleepy sickness, sleepytime, sleepy underwing, unsleepy

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for sleepy. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA