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Slumber vs Drowse - What's the difference?

slumber | drowse |

In intransitive terms the difference between slumber and drowse

is that slumber is to be inactive or negligent while drowse is to nod off; to fall asleep.

slumber

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
  • He at last fell into a slumber , and thence into a fast sleep, which detained him in that place until it was almost night. — Bunyan.
    Fast asleep? It is no matter; / Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber . — Shakespeare.
    Rest to my soul, and slumber to my eyes. — Dryden.

    Derived terms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.
  • * Bible, Psalms cxxi. 4
  • He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
  • To be inactive or negligent.
  • (obsolete) To lay to sleep.
  • (Wotton)
  • (obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
  • (Spenser)

    See also

    * catnap * doze * nap * shuteye * slumber party

    Anagrams

    *

    drowse

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • The state of being sleepy and inactive.
  • in a drowse

    Verb

    (drows)
  • To be sleepy and inactive (also figurative).
  • * 1902 , , Moon-Face :
  • Under the aching noonday glare, when the green things drooped and the birds withdrew to the depths of the forest, and all nature drowsed , his great "Ha! ha!" and "Ho! ho!" rose up to the sky and challenged the sun.
  • * 1973 July, Melville Bell Grosvenor, Homeward with Ulysses'', published in ''National Geographic , volume 144, number 1:
  • In August the cicadas chorused, and the dusty olive trees drowsed in the sun.
  • To nod off; to fall asleep.
  • To advance drowsily.
  • * 1873', , ''The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today'' (' 1915 republication), page 285:
  • the wary tadpole returned from exile, the bullfrog resumed his ancient song, the tranquil turtle sunned his back upon bank and log and drowsed his grateful life away as in the old sweet days of yore.
  • * 1966 , John Cunyus Hodges, William Congreve, the man: a biography from new sources , page 25:
  • Congreve held fast to the Greek poets, but otherwise seems to have drowsed his way through Trinity studies.
  • * 2002 , Marsha Ward, The Man from Shenandoah , page 55
  • Ida had kept him awake while he drowsed his way up the old King's Trace in eastern Missouri, feverish and weak.
  • * 2008 , Sarah Mayberry, Cruise Control'', published in ''Best of Makeovers Bundle , page 209:
  • They were led into a large, attractive room with twin massage beds, and welcomed by their masseurs—in Balinese tradition, he had a male masseur, Anna a female. He drowsed his way through the first half hour of the treatment,
  • To make heavy with sleepiness or imperfect sleep; to make dull or stupid.
  • (Milton)

    Derived terms

    * drowsy * drowsily

    Anagrams

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