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Glite Dictionary
to count sheep

to count sheep

1 4.2
To imagine sheep jumping over a fence to help you sleep
  • phrasal verb
  • Informal
translation icon : contar ovejas
  • When I can't fall asleep, I often try to count sheep to relax my mind.

Examples

  • Grandma encouraged her to count sheep.

    Blog text (19)

  • Rather than toss, turn, or count sheep, he resolved to put his wakefulness to good use.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Maybe I'll count sheep.

    Dreaming of You (2024)

  • He wondered if he should go to bed and count sheep or have one more chocolate hotdog.

    Mary and Max (2009)

  • "I've given up counting sheep—or perhaps it's the other way round.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Many people find it helpful to count sheep when they struggle to drift off to sleep.

  • Before bed, she always remembers to count sheep to help her unwind.

Synonyms

counting sheep
vsto count sheep
  • Informal
1 3.7

Imagining sheep and counting them to help you fall asleep

is the same idea but expressed as an action rather than a noun form

Antonyms

to keep up
24 3.0

To stop someone from sleeping by making them stay awake

How Sleepy

sound asleep
19 3.2
to count sheep
  • Informal
1 4.2
to relax
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

count sheep infinitive
counted sheep past
counted sheep past participle
counting sheep present participle
counts sheep third person singular

Morphology

count + sheep

The phrase literally combines 'count' and 'sheep' (i.e., to count sheep), so the component meanings are evident, but the conventionalized purpose—using that mental activity specifically to try to fall asleep—is not directly derivable from the words alone. This reliance on cultural/pragmatic knowledge (even though many languages have a similar image) makes the expression partially predictable but not fully transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrase count sheep comes from a simple sleep trick: people imagine sheep jumping over a fence and count them one by one. One common idea is that this boring, slow picture helps calm the mind, so the phrase means 'to try to fall asleep'.