Rip Van Winkle

American  

[rip van wing-kuhl] / ˌrɪp væn ˈwɪŋ kəl /

noun

1. (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.

2. (italics) the story itself, published in The Sketch Book (1819).

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Rip Van Winkle British  

/ ˈrɪp væn ˈwɪŋkəl /

noun

1. a person who is oblivious to changes, esp in social attitudes or thought

2. a person who sleeps a lot

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“Rip Van Winkle” Cultural  

1. (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.

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Etymology

Origin of Rip Van Winkle

C19: from a character who slept for 20 years, in a story (1819) by Washington Irving (1783–1859), US writer

Example Sentences

Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery’s suggested retail price of Pappy 23-year-old is $299.99.

From Washington Times • Mar. 8, 2023

“My only experience with the theater was playing Rip Van Winkle in the Cub Scouts,” he told The Daily News in 1993.

From New York Times • Jan. 27, 2023

Prevailing myths: It’s not all Ichabod Crane and Sleepy Hollow, although, yes, Washington Irving’s stories still resonate, from Tarrytown north to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, between mountains and river, Catskills and Hudson.

From Washington Post • Jul. 29, 2021

Carl also mentioned how apropos Robyn’s eight-year return felt in 2018, but to me she was the Rip Van Winkle of pop, emerging from her therapeutic cultural slumber to find a world utterly transformed.

From Slate • Dec. 24, 2018

I’m like that old man with the beard, Rip Van Winkle.

From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven