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Glite Dictionary
sleeplessly

sleeplessly

4.3
Without being able to sleep
  • adverb
  • /ˈsliːpləsli/
translation icon : sin dormir
  • She lay with the covers pulled up to her chin, staring sleeplessly up at the ceiling.

Examples

  • HILLYER HOME - MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT. CUT TO a shot of Daddy, lying in bed and staring up sleeplessly at the ceiling.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The baby cried sleeplessly, keeping the entire household awake through the night.

  • Months went sleeplessly by without his once laying hands on the accursed signalers.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • She lay with the covers pulled up to her chin, staring sleeplessly up at the ceiling.

  • After a long night of studying, he tossed and turned sleeplessly in bed until morning.

How Awake

sleeplessly
4.3
restlessly
7 3.7
drowsily
1 2.4
sleepily
7 1.0

Surface Forms

sleeplessly positive

Morphology

sleeplessly = sleepless (transparent) = sleep + less + ly

The adverb is formed by adding the regular adverbial suffix '-ly' to the adjective 'sleepless', yielding a direct adverbial meaning.

Etymology

The word sleeplessly is made from sleep + -less meaning 'without' and -ly meaning 'in a way'. So sleeplessly describes doing something 'in a way without sleep', that is, being unable to sleep.