sleepwalk

[sleep-wawk]

verb (used without object)

1. to engage in sleepwalking.

noun

1. an act of sleepwalking; somnambulation.

sleepwalk

/ ˈsliːpˌwɔːk /

verb

1. (intr) to walk while asleep See also somnambulism

Other Word Forms

• sleepwalking noun
• sleepwalker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sleepwalk¹

First recorded in 1920–25; back formation from sleepwalking

Example Sentences

The setting is still a Swiss alpine hamlet, but the villagers are all members of some puritanical sect and its sleepwalking heroine, Amina, has longings that transcend its limits.

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France isn’t sleepwalking toward a fiscal and economic crisis so much as running headlong into one.

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"We must not sleepwalk into a digital-only society before everyone is ready."

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The anesthetizing effect, in that case, feels quite deliberate, coming from people who very much want Americans to sleepwalk into an authoritarian state.

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When the inquiry met in Belfast last May she rejected suggestions the executive had "sleepwalked" during the pandemic.

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