sleep-in
Americanadjective
noun
verb
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to sleep longer than usual
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to sleep at the place of one's employment
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Sleep at one's place of employment, as in They have a butler and maid who both sleep in . [First half of 1800s]
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Sleep late, either accidentally or deliberately. For example, I slept in and missed my usual train , or On weekends we like to sleep in . [Late 1800s]
Etymology
Origin of sleep-in
First recorded in 1950–55; adj., noun use of verb phrase sleep in
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:
Perhaps my shoulder muscles were exhausted, but my entire auditory processing system was reveling in the equivalent of a luxurious Sunday morning sleep-in.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2024
Mrs Tomlinson-Blake, from Yorkshire, was paid less than £30 by Mencap for a sleep-in shift between 2200 and 0700.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2021
They held a sleep-in on the lawn of city hall and a rally that drew thousands.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 3, 2018
Also, RESULTS: The Cubs went 5-2 during Legion Week 2017, and have gone 14-2 during Maddon’s sleep-in weeks dating back to 2015.
From Golf Digest ● Sep. 28, 2017
She had, of course, left Madame Williams’s immediately upon the death of Richard, saying that she had found a sleep-in job in the country.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
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The night before, he was kind enough to give us our first full night of uninterrupted sleep in months.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
"Now we need to understand the health effects of improving sleep in those who fail to get adequate sleep on a regular basis."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 13, 2026
It wouldn’t, however, lessen absenteeism among workers losing sleep in hot homes in India’s cities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
During the last heatwave, Anabelle Holschuh, 30, found it so hard to sleep in her attic bedroom that she picked up a blanket and cushion and slept on the floor in the hallway.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
It wasn’t fair that she’d had to pretend to be a whatnot, and sleep in a charging station, and almost never get to see her father.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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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.