sleeper
sleeper Lexical Profile
sleeper Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person or animal that is sleeping, or one characterized by a particular habit or manner of sleeping.
"Because my brother is a very light sleeper, even a creaking floorboard in the hallway will wake him up."
A railway passenger car equipped with beds or berths for overnight travel, or a ticket for such accommodation.
"We booked a two-berth sleeper on the overnight train from Edinburgh to London."
British One of the heavy horizontal beams of wood, concrete, or steel laid transversely to support the rails of a railroad track.
"Maintenance crews replaced dozens of rotting wooden sleepers along the rural branch line."
A movie, book, play, or competitor that achieves unexpected success after initially attracting very little attention; also, an undercover spy or operative who remains inactive in a target community for a long period before being activated.
"The low-budget independent drama became the biggest sleeper of the summer box office."
Any of various carnivorous bottom-dwelling goby-like fishes of the family Eleotridae, native to tropical and subtropical marine, brackish, and freshwater habitats worldwide, named for their habit of resting motionless on the substrate.
"The fat sleeper is a sluggish, bottom-dwelling fish commonly found in coastal estuaries and mangrove swamps."
• Rhymes for sleeper
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed in Middle English as slepere, derived from the Old English verb slæpan ('to sleep') combined with the agentive suffix -ere. The railway sense emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, comparing the horizontal wooden support beams laid flat upon the ground to a person lying asleep.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.