Slumber vs Drowse - What's the difference?
slumber | drowse |
A very light state of sleep, almost awake.
To be in a very light state of sleep, almost awake.
* Bible, Psalms cxxi. 4
To be inactive or negligent.
(obsolete) To lay to sleep.
(obsolete) To stun; to stupefy.
The state of being sleepy and inactive.
To be sleepy and inactive (also figurative).
* 1902 , , Moon-Face :
* 1973 July, Melville Bell Grosvenor, Homeward with Ulysses'', published in ''National Geographic , volume 144, number 1:
To nod off; to fall asleep.
To advance drowsily.
* 1873', , ''The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today'' (' 1915 republication), page 285:
* 1966 , John Cunyus Hodges, William Congreve, the man: a biography from new sources , page 25:
* 2002 , Marsha Ward, The Man from Shenandoah , page 55
* 2008 , Sarah Mayberry, Cruise Control'', published in ''Best of Makeovers Bundle , page 209:
To make heavy with sleepiness or imperfect sleep; to make dull or stupid.
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
English
(wikipedia slumber)Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- 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)- He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
- (Wotton)
- (Spenser)
See also
* catnap * doze * nap * shuteye * slumber partyAnagrams
*drowse
English
Noun
(-)- in a drowse
Verb
(drows)- 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.
- In August the cicadas chorused, and the dusty olive trees drowsed in the sun.
- 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.
- Congreve held fast to the Greek poets, but otherwise seems to have drowsed his way through Trinity studies.
- Ida had kept him awake while he drowsed his way up the old King's Trace in eastern Missouri, feverish and weak.
- 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,
- (Milton)