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sleeper
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
sleeper
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
light
▪ He was a light sleeper, for long periods an insomniac.
▪ Sunlight coming through a nearby window or the sound of an early morning garbage truck can disturb a light sleeper.
▪ She was always a light sleeper, uncannily sensitive even in sleep to the ring of the telephone.
▪ People who say they are disturbed by noise at night may just happen to be light sleepers.
▪ I hoped he was a light sleeper.
■ NOUN
railway
▪ Huge pyres of old railway sleepers and fence posts are being built to burn the bodies.
▪ Dioxins were released from the wooden railway sleepers used to burn carcasses.
▪ All those railway sleepers we'd unloaded now formed a substantial complex of enclosures and conjoining gates.
▪ You couldn't just nail railway sleepers to one another because they were too big.
▪ The able-bodied had to saw up old railway sleepers and then chop up the pieces for sale as firewood.
▪ For a stouter edging you could use sections of railway sleeper.
▪ The Vincent Arms is an old building with pseudo black beams made from railway sleepers.
▪ It was used for industries from match making to house construction, from pit props to railway sleepers.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a light sleeper
▪ He was a light sleeper, for long periods an insomniac.
▪ I hoped he was a light sleeper.
▪ She was always a light sleeper, uncannily sensitive even in sleep to the ring of the telephone.
▪ Sunlight coming through a nearby window or the sound of an early morning garbage truck can disturb a light sleeper.
heavy sleeper
▪ Mrs Fairfax is a heavy sleeper, like most old people, and didn't hear anything.
▪ Or else she had become a heavy sleeper over the years.
▪ Some people who sleep next to snorers are able to tune out the sound, if they are heavy sleepers.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He's a restless sleeper, kicking and thrashing about throughout the night.
▪ He had booked on tomorrow night's sleeper, and would head up to Oban on Friday.
▪ Many sleepers are disturbed by light that pervades their eyelids when they have their eyes closed.
▪ Often what is perceived as insomnia by an older sleeper is only a change in sleep length and sleep quality.
▪ People who say they are disturbed by noise at night may just happen to be light sleepers.
▪ She's good at that too, an accomplished sleeper, with childish face.
▪ The air exerts pressure on the airway, holding it open and allowing the sleeper to breathe normally.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
sleeper

Tetard \Te*tard"\, n. (Zo["o]l.) A gobioid fish ( Eleotris gyrinus) of the Southern United States; -- called also sleeper.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
sleeper

Old English slæpere "one who sleeps, one who is inclined to sleep much," agent noun from sleep (v.). Meaning "strong horizontal beam" is from c.1600. Meaning "dormant or inoperative thing" is from 1620s. Meaning "railroad sleeping car" is from 1875. Sense of "something whose importance proves to be greater than expected" first attested 1892, originally in American English sports jargon, probably from earlier (1856) gambling slang sense of "unexpected winning card." Meaning "spy, enemy agent, terrorist etc. who remains undercover for a long time before attempting his purpose" first attested 1955, originally in reference to communist agents in the West.

Wiktionary
sleeper

Etymology 1 n. 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 railroad sleeping car. 5 Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time. 6 A goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish of the family ''(taxlink Odontobutidae family noshow=1)''. 7 A nurse shark. 8 A type of pajamas for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet. 9 (context slang English) An automobile which, not too quick out of the factory, 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. Etymology 2

n. (context rail transport British English) A railroad tie. [[Image:Spoorbaan houten dwarsliggers alphen aan den rijn.jpg|right|thumb|The short wooden bars are '''sleepers''', and the long metal bars are rails.]]

WordNet
sleeper
  1. n. a rester who is sleeping [syn: slumberer]

  2. a spy or saboteur or terrorist planted in an enemy country who lives there as a law-abiding citizen until activated by a prearranged signal

  3. an unexpected achiever of success; "the winner was a true sleeper--no one expected him to get it"

  4. one of the cross braces that support the rails on a railway track; "the British call a railroad tie a sleeper" [syn: tie, railroad tie, crosstie]

  5. a passenger car that has berths for sleeping [syn: sleeping car, wagon-lit]

  6. a piece of furniture that can be opened up into a bed

  7. tropical fish that resembles a goby and rests quietly on the bottom in shallow water [syn: sleeper goby]

  8. an unexpected hit; "that movie was the sleeper of the summer"

Wikipedia
Sleeper

A sleeper is a person who is sleeping. It may also refer to:

Sleeper (1973 film)

Sleeper is a 1973 American futuristic science fiction comedy film, directed by Woody Allen and written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. The plot involves the adventures of the owner of a health food store who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and defrosted 200 years later in an ineptly-led police state. The film contains many elements which parody notable works of science fiction and was made as a tribute to comedians Groucho Marx and Bob Hope.

Sleeper (band)

Sleeper were an English Britpop band, fronted by Louise Wener and formed in London. The group had eight UK Top 40 hit singles and three UK Top 10 albums during the 1990s. Their music was also featured in the soundtrack of Trainspotting.

Sleeper (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

"Sleeper" is the eighth episode of the seventh and final season of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sleeper (Torchwood)

"Sleeper" is the second episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was first broadcast by BBC Two on 23 January 2008. A specially edited pre-watershed repeat was shown the following day.

Sleeper (comics)

Sleeper was a comic book series written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips, published by DC Comics under their Wildstorm imprint. The series consisted of two twelve-issue limited series and the events of the first "season" served as a catalyst for the Coup D'Etat line-wide crossover.

Sleeper was set in the Wildstorm Universe and concerned the travails of Holden Carver, a covert operative who has been placed undercover in a villainous organisation led by TAO, a WildC.A.T.s villain from Alan Moore's run. It was a spin-off of Point Blank, a mini-series about Grifter from Wildcats and John Lynch from Gen¹³ that was also written by Ed Brubaker.

Sleeper (car)

A sleeper ( US English) or Q-car ( British English) is a car that has high performance and an unassuming exterior. Sleeper cars are so called because their exterior looks little or no different from a standard or economy-class car. In some cases the car appears worse due to seeming neglect on the owner's part, typically referred to as "all go and no show". While appearing to be a standard or neglected car, internally they are modified to perform at higher performance levels. The American nomenclature comes from the term sleeper agent, while the British term derives from the Q-ships used by the Royal Navy.

The earliest known use of the term 'Q-car' is in the February 1963 edition of Motor Sport magazine. The editor, Bill Boddy, said of the Lotus Cortina, "...the modifications carried out by Lotus have turned it in to a 'Q' car par excellence...". In the British film The Long Arm (film) (1956; aka The Third Key) there are mentions of a Q car (unmarked) patrolling the city by night, indicating that the term was in use among UK law enforcement at least a decade earlier.

In July 1964, British magazine Motorcycle Mechanics carried an announcement from editor Bill Lawless of the use of two police 'Q–cars' – a black Daimler SP250 sports car and a green Farina Austin A40 – patrolling the A20 between London and Maidstone, Kent.

Sleeper (Marvel Comics)

Sleeper is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Sleepers are depicted as a series of destructive robots created by the Red Skull.

Sleeper (Godstar album)

Sleeper is the debut album by Godstar, released in 1993.

Sleeper (Tribe album)

Sleeper is the third and final album from the Boston, MA alternative band Tribe. The album was released in August 24, 1993. (see ( 1993 in music).

The album spawned two singles, "Supercollider", and "Red Rover", the former of which also spawned the band's second (and last) music video.

The band performed "Supercollider" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 1993, marking the band's only ever national TV appearance.

Sleeper (2005 film)

Sleeper is a 2005 Austrian-German drama film directed by Benjamin Heisenberg. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Sleeper (Keith Jarrett album)

Sleeper is a jazz double album by Keith Jarrett's "European Quartet". Recorded on April 16, 1979 in Tokyo, it was released on ECM Records only in 2012, as ECM 2290/2291.

Sleeper (Ty Segall album)

Sleeper is the sixth studio album by American indie rock musician Ty Segall, released on August 24, 2013 on Drag City. Recorded between January and March 2013, the album features primarily acoustic psychedelic folk compositions, and is influenced by the death of Segall's father and his subsequent estrangement from his mother.

Upon the album's release, Segall noted, "I was not in a good spot. I had been through some rough stuff, like my dad passed away, and was going through some relationship issues, too. Plus, I was having all of these awful dreams. Ones about sleep and death, and it's from there that I'd write stuff from. It's not really like what I do. It's more brutal to me."

The album is notable for being the first without a promotional single since Segall's self-titled debut album. Still, in November 2013, an official video for "The Man Man" was released.

Sleeper (Modern Family)

"Sleeper" is the 21st episode of the fifth season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 117th overall. It was aired on April 30, 2014. The episode was directed by Ryan Case and written by Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh & Bill Wrubel.

In the episode, the family gets ready for a family portrait after Gloria's wish to make a new one that will include Joe. Before they get at Jay's house, Claire asks Phil to wait for the repairman of the washing machine and while he promises he will be home waiting, he leaves when a discman calls him to tell him that a song he likes has been re-edited. Phil rushes to buy it while the repairman comes in his absence. Not being able to tell Claire the truth, he tells her that the repairman did not come at all. In the meantime, Luke who has to wash his black shirt, goes with Haley to the laundromat and after a sequence of events, he ends up taking a girl's black shirt instead of his. Jay's house, Gloria believes that Joe is too "white" and she cannot send a picture of him looking like that to her family so she decides to take Joe out in the sun. Joe ends up with a sunburn that Manny covers by painting Joe's face with the colors of Colombia's flag. Claire is upset with Cameron who does not want to wear Lily the clothes she is giving him while Mitchell is upset with everyone because it seems like no one notices his presence or absence, not even when everyone is ready to take the portrait picture and he is not in it.

"Sleeper" received mixed reviews from the critics.

Usage examples of "sleeper".

And, as if wrung by some sudden pain, the sleeper turned heavily round, groaned audibly, and awoke.

She said she would not fail, but I begged her not to take too much trouble over me, as I was a very heavy sleeper.

The one who puts on the clothes in the morning is the working majority, but at night - perhaps in the moment before unconsciousness - we meet our sleeper - the priest is visited by the doubter, the Marxist sees the civilizing force of the bourgeoise, the captain of industry admits the justice of common ownership.

After touching on Planck, Einstein, Moseley, Maskelyne, and the discoveries following these pioneers, the show became mainly about how the Sleepers, one by one, two by two, bunch by timid little bunch, occasional wild firedrake or bumptious troll, Awoke, came forth, and found their way into the new Goetic Age.

There were no signs that anyone had entered the room, and it is quite certain that anything in the nature of cries or ones struggle would have been heard, since Caunter, the elder boy in the inner room, is a very light sleeper.

It took only a brief examination to confirm that she was indeed a sleeper, and Terrel reflected grimly that the Raven Cypher had been right after all.

She walked alongside the row of bright yellow SunStorage trucks, one of which would come to carry off her stuff: her sofa sleeper, her roll-away dinette set, boxes of electronics and clothes and shoes, the twenty-gallon stock pot.

China for days, then weeks at a time, coming back depressed and exhausted to find solace in whiskey, which he consumed in surprisingly moderate quantities but with fierce concentration, and in midnight bagpipe recitals that woke up everyone in Dovetail and a few sensitive sleepers in the New Atlantis Clave.

He would camp out in the cave overnight to await the precise moment of the winter solstice, half fearing and half hoping for another one of those fluky winter storms for which the Sleepers were locally infamous.

But on the night that I first spoke to you, in the courtyards of Gae at the first quarter moon of autumn, they lay so close that a sleeper, a dreamer, could be drawn across unknowingly, as you were.

Either the people of Houff were remarkably heavy sleepers or they were terrified of what was occurring outside, I decided.

Methydist bell begun to ring and then the upper house bell, and Charles Tolls horses came galoping down to the fountain ingine house with Mat Sleeper driving.

Even as the sleeper lid rose, Khor could see the console lights flashing and he could hear the intermittent buzzer.

Even as the sleeper lid rose, Khor could see the console lights flashing and could hear the intermittent buzzer.

If that thrown noose of the lariat had settled over the head and shoulders of the sham sleeper it would have made no difference whether he waked or slept--in the end he would have sat before William Drew tied hand and foot.