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Sleepy vs Sleeping - What's the difference?

sleepy | sleeping |

As adjectives the difference between sleepy and sleeping

is that sleepy is tired; feeling the need for sleep while sleeping is asleep.

As nouns the difference between sleepy and sleeping

is that sleepy is (informal) the gum that builds up in the eye while sleeping is the state or act of being asleep.

As a verb sleeping is

.

sleepy

English

(wikipedia sleepy)

Adjective

(er)
  • Tired; feeling the need for sleep.
  • * Dryden
    • She wak'd her sleepy crew.
  • Suggesting tiredness.
  • * 1994 , (Stephen Fry), (The Hippopotamus) Chapter 2
    • At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorationsas the tree had recovered from the collision.
  • Tending to induce sleep; soporific.
    • a sleepy drink or potion
  • Dull; lazy; heavy; sluggish.
  • * William Shakespeare
    • 'Tis not sleepy business; / But must be looked to speedily and strongly.
  • Quiet; without bustle or activity.
    • a sleepy English village

    Synonyms

    * tired * See also

    Noun

    (-)
  • (informal) The gum that builds up in the eye
  • * 1964 , Ken Kesey, Sometimes a great notion
    • "Did he always leave the sleepy in his eyes?" "Never removed it; let it build up in the comers of his eyes over the weeks until it was heavy enough to fall...
  • * 1991 , Martin Amis, London fields
    • But the nightdress was heavy, the sleepy in her eyes was heavy, her hair (she made a mustache of one of its locks) was heavy and smelled of cigarettes...

    sleeping

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=20 citation , passage=‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’}}

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Asleep.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.  ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}
  • Used for sleep; used to produce sleep.

    • Derived terms

    * sleeping bag * Sleeping Beauty * sleeping car * sleeping hours * sleeping pill * sleeping room

    Noun

  • the state or act of being asleep.
  • * 1995 , Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (page 144)
    • there are no words to describe the way she negotiated the abyss between her dreams, those wakings strange as her sleepings .

    Anagrams

    * peelings ----