English Explanatory Dictionary

sleeper

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Someone who sleeps.
  2. That which lies dormant, as a law.
  3. A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
  4. A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
  5. A railway sleeping car.
  6. A sleeper hold.
  7. Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.
  8. Any of family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.
  9. A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
  10. A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
  11. An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly stock appearance in order to fool opponents in a drag race, or to avoid the attention of the police.
  12. A sedative.
verb
  1. To mark a calf by cutting its ear.
noun
  1. A railroad tie.
  2. A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
  3. A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
  4. The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈsliːpə(ɹ)/ En-au-sleeper.ogg

Word forms

sleeper sleepers sleepering sleepered

Etymology

From Middle English sleper, equivalent to sleep + -er.

Synonyms

sleeper agent sleeper hit sleeper goby tie

Antonyms

cop magnet rice burner racecar

Derived words

bedside sleeper car-sleeper cold sleeper cosleeper dark sleeper daysleeper fat sleeper hot sleeper insleeper nonsleeper railway sleeper rough sleeper short sleeper short-sleeper sleeper account sleeper agent sleeper berth sleeper build sleeper bus sleeper cab sleeper cell sleeper effect sleeperette sleeper pick sleeper shark sleepershark sleeper ship sofa sleeper sofa-sleeper spinycheek sleeper spiny-cheek sleeper super-sleeper resleeper sleeperless

Translations

Spanish: durmiente Bulgarian: траверса German: Lagerholz German: Futterholz German: Unterlageholz
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