adjective
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heavy with sleepiness; sleepy
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inducing sleep; soporific
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sluggish or lethargic; dull
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of drowsy
Explanation
Drowsy means sleepy and having low energy. When you’re sitting in the warm sunlight after a big lunch, and you’re so drowsy you can’t keep your eyes open, it’s not the right time to try organizing your desk. Ah drowsy, a word that describes slow-moving lions and charming little towns equally well. It has a pleasant association to it, a nice cozy sleepiness, like the sort of feeling you have when you can’t exactly figure out why your eyes keep closing, they just do. Wine makes some people drowsy and a boring documentary will definitely do it to you. Drowsy comes from an Old English word meaning "falling," and has evolved into falling asleep.
Vocabulary lists containing drowsy
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act III
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"The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes
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Milkweed
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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:
A team that had never won so much as nine straight games during the drowsy regular season suddenly rattled off 13 straight victories in the playoffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 14, 2026
For example, Samsara’s cameras used in delivery trucks can help determine when a driver is distracted or drowsy, and deliver real-time alerts.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
When you eat too much, it can make you drowsy and cause severe stomach upsets, she says.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2026
The concerning finding here: Drivers didn’t realize that they were becoming drowsy again, even though physiological changes demonstrated that they were.
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2025
But all was quiet and they grew drowsy and fell asleep, while outside the rain settled in for the morning.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
But because Iridium was only a near-failure and not a total one, it’s also a peculiar — and drowsier — turnaround story.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2016
The volunteers still felt drowsier in the afternoon.
From BBC ● Oct. 29, 2014
After that, the show became a kind of dinner-theater version of itself -- flaccid, repetitious, drowsier than the Texas economy -- and receded discreetly into the haze of Has-Been.
From Time Magazine Archive
The night was already far advanced and Pocahontas was growing drowsier and drowsier.
From The Princess Pocahontas by George Wharton Edwards
When we were well at table, a horn from the cabins below sounded the reveille for the drowsier workmen.
From The Brick Moon and Other Stories by Edward Everett Hale
“Ma Belle, My Beauty” comes pre-drenched in the languid pleasures of late summer; for anyone looking for a respite from and a celebration of the season’s drowsiest dog days, it works a trick.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 24, 2021
Up India's Hooghly River one day last February sailed a weird vessel which made even the drowsiest citizens rub their eyes.
From Time Magazine Archive
A rooster crows somewhere far off—surely of all sounds the drowsiest.
From There's Pippins and Cheese to Come by Charles S. (Charles Stephen) Brooks
But in life there seems a thread of purpose through the least significant; the drowsiest endeavour is not lost, and even the school at Hatiheu may be more useful than it seems.
From The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 18 (of 25) by Robert Louis Stevenson
A man who thinks much about success must be the drowsiest sentimentalist; for he must be always looking back.
From What's Wrong with the World by G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
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