sleep

Definitions

General English

  • verb to rest with your eyes closed not knowing what is happening around you

General Science

  • noun a state of unconsciousness during which the body rests
  • verb to be asleep or fall asleep

Computing

  • noun the state of a system that is waiting for a signal (log-on) before doing anything.

Electronics

  • A state in which there is a suspension of activities. For example, an inactive period in a program induced by a code sent by another program.
  • A state in which a system or terminal is inactive until an input, such as the appropriate code, is received.

Medical

  • noun the state or a period of resting, usually at night, when the eyes are closed and you are not conscious of what is happening
  • verb to be in a state of sleep

Travel

  • verb to be in a state of natural rest and unconsciousness

Origin & History of “sleep”

Sleep comes from a prehistoric west Germanic *slǣpan, which also produced German schlafen and Dutch slapen. Its ancestry has not been pieced together in detail, but it is related to Dutch slap ‘sluggish’ and German schlaff ‘slack, loose’, and a link has been suggested with Lithuanian slabnas ‘weak’.
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