to sleep off
5
3.7
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
dormir la borrachera
- Most were sleeping off a drunk from the night before.
- sleep off this hangover
- sleep off the booze
- sleeping off the drink
I had the nicest day, it was so nice getting to go and see Louise and now I think I just need to like sleep off whatever this illness is.
- I had the nicest day, it was so nice getting to go and see Louise and now I think I just need to like sleep off whatever this illness is.
- Yeah, it was a Sunday and he was sleeping off the Saturday night and our Toshi's working away in the place.
Examples
-
Okay, my dears, why don't you make yourselves at home and sleep off your jet lag, and then I'll meet you tomorrow morning at breakfast.
-
Hmmm... go home for the day and sleep off all this food.
Blog text (2) -
Get her home and let her sleep off the shot.
-
Probably sleeping off whatever it was she did last night.
-
Go on in now and sleep off that alcohol.
-
His dad is lying half in the bedroom, half in the hall, sleeping off a long night.
Fiction book (1998) -
You go home, sleep off that whiskey, old man.
-
l'm trying to sleep off a hangover.
-
I had the nicest day, it was so nice getting to go and see Louise and now I think I just need to like sleep off whatever this illness is.
-
After a long night of partying, he decided to go home and sleep off the alcohol.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is partially inferable because 'sleep' (to rest) combined with the particle 'off' (which often signals removal or elimination) yields the sense 'remove the effects by sleeping'. However, the use of 'off' as a verbal particle is somewhat metaphorical and phrasal-verb semantics are not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure, so this is not fully transparent.
Etymology
The phrasal verb sleep off comes from the simple image of using sleep to let something come off you. So when you 'sleep off' a hangover, illness, or tiredness, you sleep until the bad feeling goes away and you 'recover from' it.