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Glite Dictionary
💉 To make unconscious 🌈 To euthanize 🛏️ To help sleep 💻 To enter standby
to put to sleep

to put to sleep

26 6.3
Cause a person or animal to become unconscious, often using medicine
  • phrasal verb
  • /pʊt tə slip/
  • NSFW
translation icon : anestesiar
  • Dr. Smith explained how the anesthesia would put to sleep the patient during the surgery.
  • put the patient to sleep
  • put to sleep for an operation
  • drugs that put people to sleep

But whenever I have to have an epidural and they put me to sleep, I can't wait.

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Examples

  • The veterinarian advised that we should put to sleep our old dog to relieve her suffering.

  • Many pet owners face the difficult decision to put to sleep an animal that is no longer in pain.

  • I will put him to sleep.

    The Secret Garden (2017)

  • This will put you to sleep while they fix it.

    The Blue Bird (1940)

  • - I'm putting him to sleep.

    Edge of Darkness (1943)

  • They put people to sleep.

    The Candy Snatchers (1973)

  • You're going to be comfortably put to sleep.

    Family Plot (1976)

  • Your doctor may administer general anesthesia to put you to sleep, or you might have a spinal anesthetic.

    Blog text (30)

  • I e-mailed my mom, who is a cardiac anesthesiologist (puts people to sleep/keeps them alive during heart operations).

    Blog text (25)

  • The adventures of Launcelot, Lamorak, Tristram, and La Belle Isoud soon put him to sleep.

    Fiction book (2000)

Synonyms

to sedate
vsto put to sleep
  • Specialized
95 6.8

To give medicine to make someone calm or sleepy

can also mean complete loss of consciousness or humane animal killing
to put down
vsto put to sleep
94 5.5

To kill an animal to stop its suffering

is broader, also used for drug induced unconsciousness or causing forgetfulness
to put under
vsto put to sleep
  • Specialized
17 6.0

Give someone medicine to make them unconscious before an operation

also includes humane killing of animals and causing someone to stop thinking
to anesthetize
vsto put to sleep
  • Specialized
12 7.1

To give medicine so a person or animal cannot feel pain, often before surgery

also refers to humane animal killing or to causing someone to stop thinking
to put out
vsto put to sleep
  • Specialized
10 7.3

Make someone sleep so they do not feel pain during an operation

also covers ending an animal's life humanely and making someone forget
to tranquilize
vsto put to sleep
  • Specialized
10 6.8

To make a person or animal calm by giving them medicine

extends beyond calming to include full anesthesia and humane killing
to put away
vsto put to sleep
3 7.7

To end an animal's life to stop its suffering

also means causing medical unconsciousness or making someone stop thinking
to put out of someone's misery
vsto put to sleep
  • NSFW
7.3

To stop someone's suffering or worry, sometimes by ending their life

is used more widely to mean medical anesthesia or causing someone to forget

Antonyms

to activate
715 3.6

To make a machine, system, or account start working

to awaken
73 1.8

To stop sleeping or make someone else wake up

How Deeply Unconscious

to put to sleep
  • NSFW
26 6.3
to anesthetize
  • Specialized
12 7.1
to knock out
  • NSFW
210 4.3
to sedate
  • Specialized
95 6.8
to daze
2 4.3

Surface Forms

put to sleep infinitive
put to sleep past
put to sleep past participle
putting to sleep present participle
puts to sleep third person singular

Morphology

put + to + sleep

The meaning 'place into a low-power or inactive state' is directly derivable from combining 'put' (bring something into a state) with 'sleep' (a state of inactivity/rest) and fits the common English pattern 'put X to Y' meaning 'cause X to enter Y'. Although the phrase can have a different idiomatic sense (e.g., euthanasia) in other contexts, the device-related sense is a straightforward metaphorical extension of the literal constituents and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the words.

Etymology

Put to sleep in medicine comes from the picture of a doctor giving medicine that makes a patient sleep before an operation so they feel nothing. That's why the phrase can mean 'to make someone unconscious for a medical procedure' and is also used to say 'to try to stop thinking about painful memories'.