oversleep

over- +‎ sleep

• IPA^(key): /ˈəʊvəɹˌsliːp/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

oversleep (third-person singular simple present oversleeps, present participle oversleeping, simple past and past participle overslept)

1. (intransitive) To sleep for longer than intended. [from 14th c.]

   I overslept and was late for school.

2. (reflexive, now rare) To sleep for longer than one intended. [from 15th c.]
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter LXXXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC:

     A]fter such a train of fatigue and restless nights, I had unhappily overslept myself […].

   • 1764, Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, IV:

     Theodore made awkward excuses, and attributed his delay to having overslept himself.

   • '
     1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

     The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came down to breakfast disgracefully late, [...].

3. (transitive) To sleep beyond (a given time), to sleep through (an event etc.). [from 16th c.]

   to oversleep one's usual hour of rising

• undersleep

• sleep in
• sleep it out

• overpeels, sleep over, sleepover