FALL ASLEEP

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does fall asleep mean? 

• FALL ASLEEP (verb)
  The verb FALL ASLEEP has 1 sense:

1. change from a waking to a sleeping state

  Familiarity information: FALL ASLEEP used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FALL ASLEEP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Change from a waking to a sleeping state

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

dope off; doze off; drift off; drop off; drowse off; fall asleep; flake out; nod off

Context example:

he always falls asleep during lectures

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fall asleep"):

zonk out (fall asleep fast, as when one is extremely tired)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Antonym:

wake up (stop sleeping)

 Context examples 

It would make them sometimes hug, and sometimes tear one another; they would howl, and grin, and chatter, and reel, and tumble, and then fall asleep in the mud.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Then the Queen hurriedly gave her people the order to start, for she feared if the mice stayed among the poppies too long they also would fall asleep.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A question about an individuals likelihood to doze or fall asleep.

(Doze or Fall Asleep, NCI Thesaurus)

The persons who suffer from this condition experience fatigue and may fall asleep at inappropriate times during the day.

(Narcolepsy, NCI Thesaurus)

If I fall asleep early or late, I set the alarm accordingly; and this, and the putting out of the lamp, are my last conscious actions.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Sometimes I half fall asleep when I am sitting alone and fancy things that have never happened.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I would fall asleep in the act of carrying food to my mouth and waken in torment to find the act yet uncompleted.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Mice that lacked Shisa7 were much less likely than wild-type mice to fall asleep from high levels of diazepam.

(‘Sticky’ gene may help Valium calm nerves, National Institutes of Health)

Mr. Mills, who was a terrible fellow to fall asleep after dinner, had not yet gone out, and there was no bird-cage in the middle window.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Symptoms of insomnia include: • Lying awake for a long time before you fall asleep • Sleeping for only short periods • Being awake for much of the night • Feeling as if you haven't slept at all • Waking up too early

(Insomnia, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)