doze
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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to sleep lightly or fitfully.
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to fall into a light sleep unintentionally (often followed byoff ).
He dozed off during the sermon.
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to sleep for a short time; nap.
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to be dull or half asleep.
verb (used with object)
noun
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dozes
plural
verb (used with or without object)
verb
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to sleep lightly or intermittently
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(often foll by off) to fall into a light sleep
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of doze1
1640–50; originally (now obsolete) to stupefy, make drowsy; compare Scots, N England dialect dozened, Middle English ( Scots ) dosnyt, dosinnit stupefied, dazed; akin to Old Norse dūsa rest, Swedish dialect dusa doze, slumber, Middle Low German dusen to be thoughtless; cf. daze
Origin of doze2
First recorded in 1940–45; shortened form of bulldoze
Explanation
Are you sleepy? Maybe you need to doze a little. To doze is to sleep lightly or to take a nap. To doze is to just have a little sleep: either a short nap or a very light snooze. Since doze and snooze almost rhyme — and snoring sounds a little like ZZZZZZZZZZZ — the letter Z might be a good way to remember this word. Just make sure you don't "doze off" in class.
Vocabulary lists containing doze
The Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
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Festival of Sleep Day
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The Voyage of the Frog
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In a blaring nightclub in wartime Myanmar, partied-out revellers doze until dawn by the dancefloor, wary of journeying home despite the end of a post-coup curfew.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
They took naps on Sunday to make sure they didn’t doze off.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
As her rivals nervously shuffle in their boots, Shiffrin will clear space on the ground, fold a parka as a pillow, shut her blue eyes and doze off.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
When she did doze off, Dame Jacqueline said she wanted to sleep too but used the short window available to write.
From BBC ● May 30, 2025
Lying in her bunk in Cabin Ten, she felt so restless she knew she wouldn’t be able to doze off.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Footage released on Tuesday shows police officers conferring on how to arrest the suspect as he apparently dozes in a car with a running engine.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2023
Jayna dozes off during the 30-minute trip down Minnesota Avenue that takes passengers past corner stores and fast food restaurants, brick rowhouses and beauty supply stores.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 29, 2023
Food and sleep will be put aside, except when someone dozes off in a seat or on a colleague’s shoulder.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2021
Upset, Arthur dozes off in the library and has a nightmare about Mrs. MacGrady’s workload — then awakens to find the civil rights leader sitting next to him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2020
She drops her sickles during our close-combat class, and Miss Anderson raps her ruler on Katherine's knuckles when she dozes off during our tea-serving lesson.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
"As suddenly as you began, you stopped, your anger evaporated, and then you dozed off."
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
While the app can't replace doctors, "it can reduce the number of questions we need to ask doctors directly", Wang told AFP as her baby dozed in her Shanghai apartment.
From Barron's ● Mar. 3, 2026
Willie the goat was roaming around a parking lot on a leash, and Penelope the pig dozed quietly in a carrier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2024
She was home at 9 p.m. and quickly dozed off, but within hours, she woke her mother up.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2024
I turned over and lay on my elbows and read my book to you until you dozed off.
From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday brushed off suggestions that President Donald Trump was regularly dozing off during Cabinet meetings, as questions persist over the health of the oldest US president ever inaugurated.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
He can often be seen sunning himself on the dock, with other sea lions dozing or barking away nearby.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
He’s been dozing off in meetings, which led Dick Cheney’s doctor to call for a medical evaluation.
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2026
Sloths have a reputation for being sluggish and slow, spending most of their lives dozing in trees, but a new study suggests this is one of the enduring secrets of their success.
From BBC ● May 22, 2025
I checked my bed, where Duuzuu was dozing on my pillow.
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
