slumber
- to sleep, especially lightly; doze; drowse.
- to be in a state of inactivity, negligence, quiescence, or calm: Vesuvius is slumbering.
- to spend or pass (time) in slumbering (often followed by away, out, or through): to slumber the afternoon away.
- to dispel or forget by slumbering (often followed by away): to slumber cares away.
- Sometimes slumbers. sleep, especially light sleep.
- a period of sleep, especially light sleep.
- a state of inactivity, quiescence, etc.
Origin of slumber
Related Words for slumber
coma, dormancy, stupor, inactivity, torpor, lethargy, repose, doze, nap, rest, snooze, languor, drowse, shut-eyeExamples from the Web for slumber
Contemporary Examples of slumber
Paul and McCain do not exactly have a history of slumber parties and hair-braiding.
More than one-quarter of Americans are stealing those precious hours from their slumber, and are paying a steep price for it.
We need a great leader to wake us from our slumber and remind us that a two-state solution is urgently in our own interest.
Budding doctors, actors, stock traders, lawyers, and writers all had a slumber party Wednesday night.
Coffin: A final resting place for corpses, and for daytime slumber for vampires.
Historical Examples of slumber
They were rather of the sort that closes solemnly in slumber with majestic effect.
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
The lady had fallen into a slumber, and the whisper was too low to awake her.
Little DorritCharles Dickens
I fell asleep, and dreams of warmth and sweet scents lulled me in my slumber.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
But slumber would not come; for hours and hours he vainly sought it.
The Three Cities Trilogy, CompleteEmile Zola
All that tread The globe are but a handful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom.
Graded Poetry: Second YearVarious
slumber
- (intr) to sleep, esp peacefully
- (intr) to be quiescent or dormant
- (tr foll by away) to spend (time) sleeping
- (sometimes plural) sleep
- a dormant or quiescent state
Word Origin for slumber
Word Origin and History for slumber
mid-14c. alteration of slumeren (mid-13c.), frequentative form of slumen "to doze," probably from Old English sluma "light sleep" (cf. Middle Dutch slumen, Dutch sluimeren, German schlummern "to slumber"). Frequentative on the notion of "intermittent light sleep." For the -b-, cf. number, lumber, chamber, etc. Related: Slumbered; slumbering.
mid-14c., from slumber (v.). Slumber party first recorded 1942. Slumberland is from 1875.