asleep
/əˈsliːp
/adjective & adverb
1In or into a state of sleep: [as adjective]: she had been asleep for over three hours [as adverb]: he soon fell asleep...
- There they fell asleep and slept peacefully, as lovers did when they were together.
- I was so glad of my bed when I got to it that I fell asleep right away, and slept through until I was woken by the phone at eight.
- Samuel smiled and wrapped his arms around her as he too dozed off and fell asleep.
Synonyms
sleeping, fast asleep, sound asleep, in a deep sleep, slumbering, napping, catnapping, dozing, resting, reposing, drowsing, dormant, comatose
informal snoozing, dead to the world, flat out, kipping, out like a light, in the land of Nod
literary in the arms of Morpheus
1.1Not attentive or alert; inactive: [as adjective]: the competition was not asleep...
- Matt was both alert and asleep at the same time, the feeling one gets when one spends the entire night awake drinking coffee.
- I felt like a part of my brain was numb or asleep, but at the same time liberated.
- I asked quite silly and half asleep what he was doing home again when he sort of mouped that it was all closed and no one was there.
1.2(Of a limb) having no feeling; numb: [as adjective]: his legs were asleep...
- It didn't feel so good at the time - my legs were still asleep and came slowly to life on the treadmill.
- Then I realized that my left foot was completely asleep and I could not move it or feel it at all.
- It's the fancy medical term for that nasty tingling that crawls up your leg when your foot's asleep.
Synonyms
numb, without feeling, numbed, benumbed, dead, deadened, desensitized, insensible, insensate, senseless, unfeeling;
anaesthetized
rare torpefied
1.3 literary Used euphemistically to indicate that someone is dead.The dead lie asleep, but in the second coming they shall be awakened from their graves and clothed in new skin.
Phrases
asleep at the wheel (or switch)