sleeper
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/
rhymes: -iːpə(ɹ)
Forms: form: sleepers
Etymology: From Middle English sleper, equivalent to sleep + -er.
Senses: examples: text: I'm a light sleeper: I get woken up by the smallest of sounds.
text: She's a heavy sleeper: it takes a lot to wake her up.
text: 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 temperature controls, and king- and queen-size models offer dual controls.
ref: 1986 August 28, Patricia Leigh Brown, “17 YEARS OF THE WATER BED: A SOCIAL HISTORY; CHECKING OUT REFINEMENTS”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2018:
glosses: Someone who sleeps.
examples: text: 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 […]
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1958, Duncan Leroy Kennedy, Bill drafting, page 12:
glosses: That which lies dormant, as a law.
examples: text: 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 know that they are able to manipulate at will behind the scenes.
ref: 1969, United States Congress, Departments of Treasury and Post Office and Executive Office Appropriations for 1970: Hearings, (91st Congress, First Session, parts 2-3), page 479:
synonyms: sleeper agent
glosses: A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
examples: text: His skull earring had been replaced by a small gold sleeper. He was quite as surprised to see them as they were to see him. “There! And I made sure you’d forget!” he said. After that, they all stared at one another awkwardly, until 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. But I wanted to keep my options open, as you might say. No one’s made me take it out yet. Where is there to go in this town?”
ref: 1984, Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock:
glosses: A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
examples: text: We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
text: 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 aisle, has had its day.
ref: 1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:
glosses: A railway sleeping car.
topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
sports
war
wrestling
glosses: A sleeper hold.
examples: text: A box-office bomb when it first came out, the film was a sleeper, becoming much more popular decades after being released.
text: For example, the [racehorse] trainer may have tipped a betting syndicate that he is about to unleash a sleeper […]
ref: 1968, Marvin B. Scott, The Racing Game, page 160:
synonyms: sleeper hit
glosses: Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.
glosses: Any of family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.
glosses: A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
examples: text: Aaron, Devin, and Laura looked so comfy in their sleepers.
glosses: A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
topics: automotive
transport
vehicles
antonyms: cop magnet
rice burner
racecar
glosses: 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.
examples: text: At least a couple of weeks since I last slept, / Kept takin' sleepers, but now I keep myself pepped.
ref: 1995, “Insomnia”, in Reverence, performed by Faithless:
glosses: A sedative.
topics: gambling
games
glosses: A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.
topics: literature
media
publishing
science-fiction
glosses: A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.
Synonyms: sense: goby-like fish
word: sleeper goby
Coordinate terms: topics: clothing
textiles
fashion
lifestyle
manufacturing
business
word: sleepsack
Derived terms: car-sleeper
cold sleeper
dark sleeper
fat sleeper
hot sleeper
railway sleeper
rough sleeper
short sleeper
short-sleeper
sleeper account
sleeper agent
sleeper berth
sleeper build
sleeper cab
sleeper cell
sleeper effect
sleeper shark
sleepershark
sleeper ship
sofa sleeper
sofa-sleeper
spinycheek sleeper
spiny-cheek sleeper
super-sleeper