(c) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed,
unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant; as, a question sleeps
for the present; the law sleeps.
How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank!
Shak.
Sleep, v. t. 1. To be slumbering in; -- followed by a cognate object;
as, to sleep a dreamless sleep. Tennyson.
2. To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to
lodge. [R.] Blackw. Mag.
To sleep away, to spend in sleep; as, to sleep away precious time. --
To sleep off, to become free from by sleep; as, to sleep off drunkeness
or fatigue.
Sleep, n. [AS. slp; akin to OFries. slp, OS. slp, D. slaap, OHG. slf,
G. schlaf, Goth. slps. See Sleep, v. i.] A natural and healthy, but
temporary and periodical, suspension of the functions of the organs of
sense, as well as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that
state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory
perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control,
followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man that waketh of his
sleep." Chaucer.
O sleep, thou ape of death.
Shak.
Sleep is attended by a relaxation of the muscles, and the absence of
voluntary activity for any rational objects or purpose. The pulse is
slower, the respiratory movements fewer in number but more profound,
and there is less blood in the cerebral vessels. It is susceptible of
greater or less intensity or completeness in its control of the powers.
Sleep of plants (Bot.), a state of plants, usually at night, when their
leaflets approach each other, and the flowers close and droop, or are
covered by the folded leaves.
Syn. -- Slumber; repose; rest; nap; doze; drowse.
Sleep"-at-noon" (?), n. (Bot.) A plant (Tragopogon pratensis) which
closes its flowers at midday; a kind of goat's beard. Dr. Prior.
Sleep"-charged` (?), a. Heavy with sleep.
Sleep"er (?), n. 1. One who sleeps; a slumberer; hence, a drone, or
lazy person.