sound asleep
19
3.2
- idiom
- /saʊnd əˈsliːp/
:
dormido profundamente
- Twenty-four hours from now, I'll be sound asleep in my own bed.
- sound asleep in bed
- sound asleep, snoring
- fell sound asleep
Which is why we must be very quiet, for underneath each of these hastily fashion tents are the band members sound asleep.
- Which is why we must be very quiet, for underneath each of these hastily fashion tents are the band members sound asleep.
- Every morning we'd throw the tent flap back and he'd be like this and pause prom sound asleep by the entry.
Examples
-
In a few minutes, my babies will be sound asleep in their cribs.
Fiction book (1996) -
Butch asked a question, only to find him sound asleep in bed.
Fiction book (1994) -
My husband is back there sound asleep!
-
I passed by... and I see Tony sound asleep in the car.
-
Look at them, all sound asleep.
-
I turned to see him sound asleep on my table.
Fiction book (2000) -
And the moment had passed, for Monica was sound asleep.
-
And the guard is sound asleep and snoring like a wild dog!
-
I know you'll be sound asleep.
-
After a long day, my husband is back there sound asleep on the couch.
Synonyms
73
1.0
Become not awake
19
2.5
Resting very deeply and not easy to wake
2
3.5
Completely not awake and hard to wake
Antonyms
How Asleep
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'sound' used as an intensifying adjective meaning 'deep' or 'complete' with 'asleep', so the overall meaning 'sleeping very deeply' is compositionally derivable. However, the specific sense of 'sound' as 'deep/undisturbed' is somewhat lexicalized and may not be known to a B1 learner who only knows 'sound' as 'reliable' or 'well-founded', making the relation partially predictable but not fully transparent.
Etymology
The phrase sound asleep uses sound in an old meaning that meant 'strong' or 'whole', like a safe, solid house. So to be sound asleep means to be completely and deeply asleep ('sleeping very deeply').