slumber
UK /ˈslʌm.bə/ · US /ˈslʌm.bɚ/ noun, verb
Forms slumbers slumbering slumbered slumbre
- noun A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- noun (loosely) A very heavy state of sleep.
- noun (figurative) A state of ignorance or inaction.
- noun (rare, as used by Magnavox clock radios) The snooze button on an alarm clock.
- verb (intransitive) To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.
- verb (intransitive) To be inactive or negligent.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To lay to sleep.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English slombren, slomren, frequentative of Middle English slummen, slumen (“to doze”), probably from Middle English slume (“slumber”), from Old English slūma, from Proto-Germanic *slūm- (“slack, loose, limp, flabby”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lew- (“loose, limp, flabby”).
Cognate with West Frisian slommerje, slûmerje (“to slumber”), Dutch sluimeren (“to slumber”), German schlummern (“to slumber, doze”), Swedish slummer (“to slumber”). By surface analysis, sloom + -er.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To sleep; especially, to sleep lightly; to doze. Piers Plowman.
- verb To be in a state of negligence, sloth, supineness, or inactivity.
- verb To lay to sleep. [R.] Wotton.
- verb To stun; to stupefy. [Obs.] Spenser.
Etymology [OE. slombren, slumberen, slumeren, AS. slumerian, fr. sluma slumber; akin to D. sluimeren to slumber, MHG. slummern, slumen, G. schlummern, Dan. slumre, Sw. slumra, Goth. slawan to be silent.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “slumber”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details