sleeper

Plural: sleepers

Noun

• One who sleeps; something that achieves unexpected success after a period of obscurity.
• a rester who is sleeping
• a spy or saboteur or terrorist planted in an enemy country who lives there as a law-abiding citizen until activated by a prearranged signal
• an unexpected achiever of success
  • "the winner was a true sleeper--no one expected him to get it"
• one of the cross braces that support the rails on a railway track
  • "the British call a railroad tie a sleeper"
• a passenger car that has berths for sleeping
• pajamas with feet; worn by children
• a piece of furniture that can be opened up into a bed
• tropical fish that resembles a goby and rests quietly on the bottom in shallow water
• an unexpected hit
  • "that movie was the sleeper of the summer"
• Someone who sleeps.
• That which lies dormant, as a law.
• A spy, saboteur, or terrorist who lives unobtrusively in a community until activated by a prearranged signal; may be part of a sleeper cell.
• A small starter earring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
• A railway sleeping car.
• A sleeper hold.
• Something that achieves unexpected success after an interval of time.
• Any of family Odontobutidae of goby-like bottom-feeding freshwater fish.
• A nurse shark (family Ginglymostomatidae).
• A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
• An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly stock appearance in order to fool opponents in a drag race, or to avoid the attention of the police.
• A sedative.
• A bet placed on the gambling table and then forgotten about by the gambler.
• A pod or similar device containing a person in cryosleep.
• A railroad tie.
• A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
• A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
• The lowest, or bottom, tier of casks.

Verb

• To mark a calf by cutting its ear.

Examples

• A box-office bomb when it first came out, the film was a sleeper, becoming much more popular decades after being released.
• Aaron, Devin, and Laura looked so comfy in their sleepers.
• I'm a light sleeper: I get woken up by the smallest of sounds.
• She's a heavy sleeper: it takes a lot to wake her up.
• That obscure two-letter word was a true SLEEPER, leading to a massive bingo.
• We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.

Synonyms

crosstie, railroad tie, sleeper goby, sleeping car, slumberer, tie, wagon-lit, sleeper agent, sleeper hit

Antonyms

cop magnet, racecar, rice burner