sleep

sleep
    n 1: a natural and periodic state of rest during which
         consciousness of the world is suspended; "he didn't get
         enough sleep last night"; "calm as a child in dreamless
         slumber" [syn: {sleep}, {slumber}]
    2: a torpid state resembling deep sleep [syn: {sleep}, {sopor}]
    3: a period of time spent sleeping; "he felt better after a
       little sleep"; "there wasn't time for a nap" [syn: {sleep},
       {nap}]
    4: euphemisms for death (based on an analogy between lying in a
       bed and in a tomb); "she was laid to rest beside her
       husband"; "they had to put their family pet to sleep" [syn:
       {rest}, {eternal rest}, {sleep}, {eternal sleep}, {quietus}]
    v 1: be asleep [syn: {sleep}, {kip}, {slumber}, {log Z's},
         {catch some Z's}] [ant: {wake}]
    2: be able to accommodate for sleeping; "This tent sleeps six
       people"
    

Sleep \Sleep\, v. t.
   1. To be slumbering in; -- followed by a cognate object; as,
      to sleep a dreamless sleep. --Tennyson.
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   2. To give sleep to; to furnish with accomodations for
      sleeping; to lodge. [R.] --Blackw. Mag.
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   {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.
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Sleep \Sleep\, obs.
   imp. of Sleep. Slept. --Chaucer.
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Sleep \Sleep\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Slept}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Sleeping}.] [OE. slepen, AS. sl?pan; akin to OFries. sl?pa,
   OS. sl[=a]pan, D. slapen, OHG. sl[=a]fan, G. schlafen, Goth.
   sl?pan, and G. schlaff slack, loose, and L. labi to glide,
   slide, labare to totter. Cf. {Lapse}.]
   1. To take rest by a suspension of the voluntary exercise of
      the powers of the body and mind, and an apathy of the
      organs of sense; to slumber. --Chaucer.
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            Watching at the head of these that sleep. --Milton.
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   2. Figuratively:
      (a) To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to
          be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
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                We sleep over our happiness.      --Atterbury.
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      (b) To be dead; to lie in the grave.
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                Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring
                with him.                         --1 Thess. iv.
                                                  14.
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      (c) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be
          unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie
          dormant; as, a question sleeps for the present; the
          law sleeps.
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                How sweet the moonlight sleep upon this bank!
                                                  --Shak.
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Sleep \Sleep\, n. [AS. sl[=ae]p; akin to OFries. sl[=e]p, OS.
   sl[=a]p, D. slaap, OHG. sl[=a]f, G. schlaf, Goth. sl[=e]ps.
   See {Sleep}, v. i.]
   A natural and healthy, but temporary and periodical,
   suspension of the functions of the organs of sense, as well
   as of those of the voluntary and rational soul; that state of
   the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory
   perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental
   control, followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man
   that waketh of his sleep." --Chaucer.
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         O sleep, thou ape of death.              --Shak.
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   Note: Sleep is attended by a relaxation of the muscles, and
         the absence of voluntary activity for any rational
         objects or purpose. The pulse is slower, the
         respiratory movements fewer in number but more
         profound, and there is less blood in the cerebral
         vessels. It is susceptible of greater or less intensity
         or completeness in its control of the powers.
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   {Sleep of plants} (Bot.), a state of plants, usually at
      night, when their leaflets approach each other, and the
      flowers close and droop, or are covered by the folded
      leaves.
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   Syn: Slumber; repose; rest; nap; doze; drowse.
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sleep
 vi.

   1. [techspeak] To relinquish a claim (of a process on a multitasking
   system) for service; to indicate to the scheduler that a process may
   be deactivated until some given event occurs or a specified time delay
   elapses.

   2. In jargon, used very similarly to v. {block}; also in sleep on,
   syn.: with block on. Often used to indicate that the speaker has
   relinquished a demand for resources until some (possibly unspecified)
   external event: "They can't get the fix I've been asking for into the
   next release, so I'm going to sleep on it until the release, then
   start hassling them again."
    

sleep

   1. <operating system, multitasking> (Or "{block}") When a
   {process} on a {multitasking} system asks the {scheduler} to
   deactivate it until some given external event (e.g. an
   {interrupt} or a specified time delay) occurs.

   The alternative is to {poll} or "{busy wait}" for the event
   but this uses processing power.

   Also used in the phrase "sleep on" (or "block on") some
   external event, meaning to wait for it.

   E.g. the {Unix} command of the same name which pauses the
   current process for a given number of seconds.

   2. <hardware> To go into partial deactivation to save power.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2000-09-25)
    

178 Moby Thesaurus words for "sleep":
      KO, annihilation, ataraxia, ataraxy, bane, be caught napping,
      be neglectful, be negligent, beauty sleep, beddy-bye, bedtime,
      biological death, blackout, blanket drill, bye-bye, calmness,
      catalepsy, catatonia, catatony, catnap, cessation of life,
      clinical death, coma, comfort, composure, contemplation,
      crossing the bar, curtains, death, death knell, debt of nature,
      decease, default, demise, departure, disregard, dissolution, doom,
      doss, doze, dreamland, drop off, drowse, dying, ease, ebb of life,
      end, end of life, ending, eternal rest, exit, expiration,
      extinction, extinguishment, fail, faint, final summons,
      finger of death, fitful sleep, forty winks, fust, gloss over,
      going, going off, grave, grayout, hand of death, hang fire,
      hibernation, idle, ignore, imperturbability, inactivity,
      jaws of death, kayo, knell, knockout, land of Nod, lapse,
      last debt, last muster, last rest, last roundup, last sleep,
      leaving life, let go, let ride, let slide, let slip, light sleep,
      lipothymia, lipothymy, lose sight of, lose track of, loss of life,
      lucid stillness, making an end, marmoreal repose, nap, neglect,
      nirvana, nirvana principle, nod, nod off, not care for,
      not get involved, not heed, not think, nothingness, oblivion,
      obliviousness, overlook, oversleep, parting, pass over, passing,
      passing away, passing over, peace, peacefulness, perishing,
      placidity, placidness, pound, quiescence, quiescency, quiet,
      quietism, quietness, quietude, quietus, relax, relaxation, release,
      repose, rest, restfulness, reward, satori, saw logs, saw wood,
      semiconsciousness, senselessness, sentence of death, serenity,
      shades of death, shadow of death, shut-eye, siesta, silence,
      silken repose, sleep soundly, sleepland, sleepwalking, slumber,
      slumberland, smolder, snooze, snoozle, snore, somatic death,
      somnambulism, somniloquy, somnus, stagnate, stillness, stupor,
      summons of death, swoon, syncope, take a nap, take for granted,
      tranquillity, unbuttoned ease, unconsciousness, vegetate,
      winter sleep, wise passiveness