sleepy

sleepy, *drowsy, somnolent, slumberous mean affected by a desire to sleep or inducing such a desire.

Sleepy, the ordinary term of this group, applies not only to persons but to things that suggest a resemblance to persons who show a readiness to fall asleep

{

away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy—Shak.)

}

{

a sleepy town

}

{

the quiet, sleepy railroad station— Anderson

}

The term also applies to conditions or to things which incline one to sleep or to dozing or dreaming

{

the yellowhammer trills his sleepy song in the noonday heat— L. P. Smith

}

Drowsy differs from sleepy in carrying a stronger implication of the heaviness or loginess associated with sleepiness than of the actual need of rest

{

become drowsy after a heavy dinner

}

{

when the sun should burn through the leaves . . . Mrs. Barkley would grow drowsy . . . and go off to take a nap— Deland

}

When applied to things rather than to persons, drowsy connotes more obviously than sleepy a soporific power

{

not poppy, nor mandragora, nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep which thou owedst yesterday— Shak.

}

{

idrowsy tinklings lull the distant folds— Gray

}

{

the leisurely swishing of the water to leeward was like a drowsy comment on her progress— Conrad

}

Somnolent may be used in place of drowsy; usually, however, it connotes the sluggishness or inertness characteristic of one who is sleepy or drowsy or the capacity for inducing this rather than the actual impulse to sleep or doze

{

a somnolent want of interest— De Quincey

}

{

Eustacia waited, her somnolent manner covering her inner heat and agitation— Hardy

}

{

the somnolent pages of a three-volume novel

}

Slumberous is often used in the sense of sleepy or drowsy or somnolent; occasionally it carries a distinctive connotation in which it usually suggests quiescence or the repose of latent powers

{

I . . . heard the mountain's slumberous voice— Shelley

}

{

Eustacia's manner was as a rule of a slumberous sort, her passions being of the massive rather than the vivacious kind— Hardy

}

Analogous words: *lethargic, sluggish, comatose