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
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
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.
Burdick was nervous when Brown came back with a deed signed by Doze himself.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 8, 2022
That should make for a decent enough improvement, especially when you factor in Android 6.0's Doze feature, which puts the phone into a deep low power state when it's not being used.
From The Verge • Feb. 15, 2016
Doze off, and he might transform into a human alarm clock, piercing the cabin with an ear-splitting scream.
From Washington Post • Mar. 10, 2015
Mr. Buffard, Matthieu Doze and Christophe Ives are both the bodies and the forces.
From New York Times • Oct. 22, 2010
One in particular faithful at funerals I had learned to know—M. Le Doze.
From Golden Lads by Gleason, Arthur
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.
