Search the Dictionary

ken; to increase in bulk or quantity. [Obs.] Waves . . . engrossed with mud. Spenser. Not sleeping, to engross his idle body. Shak.

To inclose; to environ; to shut in. Those sleeping stones, That as a waist doth girdle you about. Shak.

for cooking and eating. It was often contrasted with the bower, which was the private or sleeping apartment. Full sooty was her bower and eke her hall. Chaucer. Hence, as the entrance from outside was directly into the hall:

A sleeping in a consecrated place for the purpose of dreaming oracular dreams. Tylor. Period of incubation, or Stage of incubation (Med.), the period which elapses between exposure to the causes of a disease and the attack resulting from it; the time of development of the supposed germs or spores.

Between the times of sleeping; in an interval of wakefulness. [R.]

n intricate or involved form, or having a very complicated nature. The serpent . . . fast sleeping soon he found, In labyrinth of many a round self-rolled. Milton. The labyrinth of the mind. Tennyson.

To give shelter or rest to; especially, to furnish a sleeping place for; to harbor; to shelter; hence, to receive; to hold. Every house was proud to lodge a knight. Dryden. The memory can lodge a greater stone of images that all the senses can present at one time. Cheyne.

A place of rest, or of temporary habitation; esp., a sleeping apartment; -- often in the plural with a singular meaning. Gower. Wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow. Pope.

A temporary blindness, or impairment of sight, said to be caused by sleeping in the moonlight; -- sometimes called nyctalopia.

A loose gown used for undress; also, a gown used for a sleeping garnment.

The tendency of certain plant organs, as leaves, to assume special "sleeping" positions or make curvatures under the influence of darkness. It is well illustrated in the leaflets of clover and other leguminous plants.

To exceed in sleeping. Shak.

g upon; as, to overlie an infant. Quain. A woman by negligence overlieth her child in her sleeping. Chaucer.

serene; peaceful; tranquil; quiet; gentle. "That placid aspect and meek regard." Milton. "Sleeping . . . the placid sleep of infancy." Macaulay.

A kind of sleeping car; also, a palace car; -- often shortened to Pullman.

In a rough manner; rudely; roughly. Sleeping rough on the trenches, and dying stubbornly in their boats. Sir W. Scott.

y as to be convinced; satisfied; persuaded. He [man] can not think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. Locke. They are now sensible it would have been better to comply than to refuse. Addison.

To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for sleeping; to lodge. [R.] Blackw. Mag. To sleep away, to spend in sleep; as, to sleep away precious time. -- To sleep off, to become free from by sleep; as, to sleep off drunkeness or fatigue.

A sleeping car. [Colloq. U.S.]

A small apartment for lodging or sleeping in the cabin, or on the deck, of a vessel; also, a somewhat similar apartment in a railway sleeping car.