snooze
Americanverb (used without object)
-
snoozes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
snoozed,
past participle, past
-
snoozing
present participle
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
snoozesimple
-
snoozessimple
-
have snoozedperfect
-
has snoozedperfect
-
am snoozingprogressive
-
are snoozingprogressive
-
is snoozingprogressive
-
have been snoozingperfect progressive
-
has been snoozingperfect progressive
Past
-
snoozedsimple
-
had snoozedperfect
-
was snoozingprogressive
-
were snoozingprogressive
-
had been snoozingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of snooze
First recorded in 1780–90; origin uncertain
Explanation
When you snooze, you take a quick nap during the day. Nobody snoozes for too long though, because then you’d just call it "sleeping." Maybe you’ve fallen asleep in class before, dozed off while watching a movie, or snoozed for a minute while learning some new vocabulary. Wake up, sleepyhead! Snoozing is a light type of sleep, probably without dreams even. If you like reading at the beach, make sure you’re wearing sunscreen in case you snooze off.
Vocabulary lists containing snooze
The Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
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"Pitch Perfect," Vocabulary from the movie
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Festival of Sleep Day
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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:
"We were not able and not willing, once again, to push the snooze button on this… it was a huge step for Germany, a huge step for the German population, definitely."
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
“It’s not like you’re sleeping in a little sleeping cube,” Shiffrin says of her snooze routine, which long ago earned her the nickname Sir Naps a Lot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Potentially fascinating subject matter, no doubt, but also a snooze, Nile tells Aggie.
From Salon ● Nov. 19, 2025
The Fed meeting was expected to be something of a snooze, with many predicting that earnings would again overshadow the central bank.
From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2025
The paw fell heavily, and Pasha’s Favorite continued to snooze.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
If kids can grow out of their pretend pals, so too can horror audiences of cynical snoozes like this.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2024
“A lot of times he snoozes at the bottom of the water.”
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2023
In Rest Mode, the ring snoozes your activity goals and readjusts your scores to prioritize recovery.
From The Verge ● Nov. 10, 2021
House rules: Carl must reside in a pen under Ms. McCarthy’s raised bed; Theo snoozes in a crate in Ms. Brill’s bedroom.
From New York Times ● Oct. 4, 2015
He still doesn’t say anything, but he snuggles up next to me by the fireplace and we take long cozy snoozes together.
From "Bunnicula" by Deborah Howe and James Howe
Others took inventory of the hastily packed belongings in their trunks or snoozed as comfortably as they could in plastic chairs at the evacuation site.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
A family of four adults on vacation happily snoozed in their pods with eye masks on.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
Wanting more time to bond before returning to work, O’Brien brought the newborn with her to Bismarck, where she snoozed through Gov. Doug Burgum’s State of the State address on her mother’s desk.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 7, 2024
I snoozed, and I lost: Not only did I not snag a seat in the actual courtroom, but the media-overflow room was the most packed it’s been the entire trial.
From Slate ● Oct. 26, 2023
No cars traveled the roads, no creatures howled or sniffed or chuffed, and the wind, a constant in the cornfields of Illinois, pulled in on itself and snoozed like a cat.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
Whatever engine droning and snoozing you might remember from earlier CVT systems has been banished to the Phantom Zone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
About all they’re hitting is the snooze button — snoozing and, on Wednesday, losing 4-1 to the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026
In the fierce midday heat we found most people snoozing in hammocks, or playing music on their porches.
From BBC ● May 20, 2025
Lisa Rubin, a legal correspondent for MSNBC, told Chris Jansing that Trump’s lawyers have gone to great lengths trying to keep him from snoozing during arguments.
From Salon ● May 1, 2024
She lay there, snoozing contentedly, while he worked on his math test.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
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.
