sleeper1 (sleper)

[ slaper = MHG. slafære, slāfer, G. schalä fer ), sleeps: as, a sound sleeper. - 21. A drone, or lazy person; a sluggard. To ben a verray sleeper , fy, for shame. Chaucer , Nun's Priest's Tale, 1. 71. 3t. A dormant or inoperative thing; something that is in abeyance or is latent. Let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judges confined in the execution. Bacon , Judicature (ed. 1887). 4. An animal that lies dormant in winter or summer, as the bear, the marmot, certain mollusks, etc. See sleep , n., 4.-5. Figuratively, a dead person. Graves at my command Have waked their sleepers. Shak ., Tempest, v. 1. 49. 6. pl. Grains of barley that do not vegetate in malting. Hall i well. [Prov. Eng.]-7. A railway sleeping-car. [Colloq., U. S.]-8. In 2ool.: (a) The dormouse, Myoxus avellanarius. (b) The sleeper-shark, Somniosus microcepha lus, and some related species, as Ginglymos tom a cirratum. (c) A gobioid fish of the genus Philypnus, Eleotris, or Dorm it at or, as D. line a tus or D. maculatus. See Elcotridinæ. sleeper2 (slē'pėr), n. [E. dial. also slaper; perhaps Here are no storms, No noise, but silence and eternal sleep . Shak., Tit. And., i. 1. 155. A calm, unbroken sleep Is on the blue waves of the deep. Prentice, To an Absent Wife, 4. Specifically, in zool., the protracted and profound dormancy or torpidity into which various animals fall periodically at certain seasons of the year. Two kinds of this sleep are distinguished as summer and winter sleep, technically known as estivation and hibernation (see these words). of plants, a condition brought about in the foliar or floral organs of certain plants, in which they a ume at nightfall, or just before, positions unlike those which they have maintained during the day. These movements in the case of leaves are usually drooping movements, and are therefore sug gestive of rest, but the direction of movement is different beam of wood or the like placed on the ground as a support for something. (a) In carp., a piece of timber on which are laid the ground-joists of a floor; a beam on or near the ground, or on a low cro -wall, for the support of some superstructure. (b) In mil it, eng in., one of the small joists of wood which form the foundation for a battery platform. (c) A piece of wood, metal, or other material upon which the rails or the rail-chairs of a railway rest, and to which they are fastened. Wood of And sleep in dull cold marble. 1 Thes. iv. 14. When I am forgotten, as I shall be, Shak ., Hen. VIII., iii. 2. 433. 5. To be carele , remi , inattentive, or unconcerned; live thoughtle ly or carele ly; take things easy. durable varieties is far more extensively used for this pur pose than any other material; but stone, toughened gla , and iron have also been used, the last to a considerable extent. In some instances the sleepers are laid longitudinally with the rails, and bound together by cro -ties. This system is in use on some important European railways, and generally on elevated railways and street railways, both in the United States and elsewhere; but the most common method is to lay the sleepers at right angles to the rails, and about 2 feet from center to center, except when they support points and angle-bars, when they are placed 1 foot 6 inches from center to center. They are thus made to act both as sleepers and as cro -ties. Such sleepers are in the United States also called railway -ties or simply ties . See cut under rail - chair . The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary sleeper 3. In ship- building, a thick piece of timber placed longitudinally in a ship's hold, opposite the several scarfs of the timbers, for strengthening the bows and stern-frame; a piece of long compa -timber fayed and bolted diagonally upon the transoms.-4. In gla - making, one of the large iron bars cro ing the smaller ones, which hinder the pa age of coals, but leave room for the ashes.-5. In weaving, the upper part of the heddle of a draw-loom, through which the threads pa . E. H. Knight.