Rip Van Winkle
(in a story by Washington Irving) a ne'er-do-well who sleeps 20 years and upon waking is startled to find how much the world has changed.
(italics) the story itself, published in The Sketch Book (1819).
Words Nearby Rip Van Winkle
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use Rip Van Winkle in a sentence
But if parents know that their baby is a veritable Rip Van Winkle, date night becomes less of a bank breaker.
The Colorado Shooting: Why Mothers Take Babies to Movies | Kevin Fallon | July 25, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTYou must read for yourselves the famous story of Rip Van Winkle and the nap he took.
St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 5, March, 1878 | VariousIt will be needless here to recapitulate the tale of Rip Van Winkle himself.
The Science of Fairy Tales | Edwin Sidney HartlandHe will in that case probably fancy himself chatting with a contemporary of Rip Van Winkle.
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 445 | VariousIt is a characteristic representative of the hill towns, so still that the air seems drowsy as in Rip Van Winkle's village.
From the Easy Chair, series 2 | George William Curtis
Like Rip Van Winkle, it began slowly to awaken from its long sleep and become alert.
Christopher and the Clockmakers | Sara Ware Bassett
British Dictionary definitions for Rip Van Winkle
/ (ˈrɪp væn ˈwɪŋkəl) /
a person who is oblivious to changes, esp in social attitudes or thought
a person who sleeps a lot
Origin of Rip Van Winkle
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for “Rip Van Winkle”
(1819) A story by Washington Irving. The title character goes to sleep after a game of bowling and much drinking in the mountains with a band of dwarves. He awakens twenty years later, an old man. Back home, Rip finds that all has changed: his wife is dead, his daughter is married, and the American Revolutionary War has taken place.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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