sleep-out

[ sleep-out ]

adjective
noun
  1. a person who lives elsewhere than at the place of employment.

  2. an act or instance of sleeping outdoors.

Origin of sleep-out

1
First recorded in 1910–15; adj., noun use of verb phrase sleep out

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sleep-out in a sentence

  • Many questions are answered, like: What are the objections to having an infant sleep out of doors?

    A Few Good Books for Dads | John Elder Robison | June 14, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • If any of them had to stay over there all night, they would sleep out in the woods rather than go into the house.

    The Rival Campers | Ruel Perley Smith
  • You see, I didn't know if I was to sleep out of doors or sleep in a barn—surely, I didn't plan that it was a place like this!

    David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
  • It was quite different from the warm jungle where he could sleep out of doors with only his own fur for a bedquilt.

    Mappo, the Merry Monkey | Richard Barnum
  • The hot Rain drenched them, and the tropical Sun steamed them; they had Mud on their clothes, and had to sleep out.

    Fables in Slang | George Ade
  • Billy Junior rubbed his face against his fore leg to get the sleep out of his eyes, so he could see who was there.

    Billy Whiskers' Adventures | Frances Trego Montgomery

British Dictionary definitions for sleep out

sleep out

verb(intr, adverb)
  1. (esp of a tramp) to sleep in the open air

  2. to sleep away from the place of work

nounsleep-out
  1. Australian and NZ an area of a veranda that has been glassed in or partitioned off so that it may be used as a bedroom

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with sleep-out

sleep-out

Sleep at home, as opposed to one's place of employment, as in We have a full-time nurse for her, but she sleeps out. [Mid-1800s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.