English

Verb

fall asleep ‎(third-person singular simple present falls asleep, present participle falling asleep, simple past fell asleep, past participle fallen asleep)

1. To pass from a state of wakefulness into sleep.
   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter II:

     She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

2. To be affected by paresthesia; to go numb.

   My left leg has fallen asleep!‎

3. (poetic, euphemistic) To die (often seen on gravestones).

   John Doe, fell asleep 1 January 2001‎

Synonyms

• (pass from a state of wakefulness into sleep): drift off, drop off, go to sleep, nod off; See Wikisaurus:fall asleep
• (poetic, euphemistic: to die): pass, pass away, pass over

Antonyms

• (pass from a state of wakefulness into sleep): awake, awaken, wake, wake up

See also

• put to sleep

Translations