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That which lies dormant, or without effect.—Let penal laws, 
if they have been sleepers of long, or if grown unfit for the 
present time, be by wise judges confined in the execution. 
Bacon. —A fish. [ eroca:tus.'\ Ainsworth. —[In architec¬ 
ture.] A strip of solid timber (or some. substantial substi¬ 
tute) which lies on the ground to support the joist of a floor. 
Mason. —The length of hips and sleepers. Evelyn. 
SLEEPER, in Building, a name used for the oblique rafter, 
that lies in a gutter. 
SLEEPERS, in the Glass Trade, are the large iron bars 
crossing the smaller ones, and hindering the passage of the 
coals, but leaving room for the ashes. 
SLEEPERS, in Ship-Building, pieces of long compass- 
timber, fayed and bolted diagonally upon the transoms and 
timbers adjoining withinside, to strengthen the buttock of 
the ship. There are from two to three pairs. 
SLEE'PFUL, adj. [Sax. plappul. See also Sleepful- 
ness.] Overpowered by desire to sleep.—Distrust will cure 
a lethargy ; of a sleepful man it makes a wakeful one, and 
so keeps out poverty. Scott. 
SLEE'PFULNESS, s. [jiappulnij, Sax. Lye.] Strong- 
desire to sleep 
SLEE'PILY, adv. Drowsily; with desire to sleep. 
Dully; lazily.—I rather chuse to endure the wounds of those 
darts, which envy casteth at novelty, than to go on safely 
and sleepily in the easy ways of ancient mistaking^. 
Balegh. —Stupidly.—He would make us believe that Luther 
in these actions pretended to authority, forgetting what he 
had sleepily owned before. Atterbury. 
SLEE'PlNESS, s. Drowsiness; disposition to sleep; 
inability to keep awake.—Watchfulness precedes too great 
sleepiness, and is the most ill boding symptom of a fever. 
Arbuthnot 
SLEE'PING, s. The state of resting in sleep. The state 
of not being disturbed, or noticed. 
You ever 
Have wish’d the sleeping of this business, never 
Desir’d it to be stirr’d. Shalcspeare. 
SLEE'PLESS, adj. Wanting sleep; always awake. 
The field 
To labour calls us, now with sweat impos’d. 
Though after sleepless night. Milton. 
SLEEPLESSNESS, s. Want of sleep.—Lipsius—con¬ 
ceives an impossibility of an absolute sleeplessness. 
Bp. Hall. 
SLEE'PY, adj. Drowsy; disposed to sleep. 
From his feet, even, to his sleepie head. 
She made her poison canker-like to spread. Mir. for Mag. 
Not awake. 
Why did you bring these daggers from the place? 
They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear 
The sleepy grooms with blood. Shakspeare. 
Soporiferous; somniferous; causing sleep.—We will give 
you sleepy drinks, that your senses unintelligent of our 
iasuffkience, may, though they cannot praise us, as little 
accuse us. Shakspeare.-^. Dull; lazy. 
’Tis not sleepy business, 
But must be look’d to speedily and strongly. Shakspeare. 
SLEEPY CREEK, a river of the United States, in North 
Carolina, which runs into the Atlantic. Lat. 76. 44. N. 
long. 76. 44. W. 
SLEET, s. [perhaps from the Danish, slet. Dr. Johnson. 
— Sleet is the past participle yle-eb, fleeb, jleet, of 
jlean. Sax, projicere; and has no connexion with the 
Danish slet, which means smooth, polished. Mr. H. 
Tooke, Div. of Purl. ii. 334.—Serenius, however, notices 
the Dan. slud, which means sleet; and also thelcel. sletta, 
liquida dispergere. The Sax. plihc, says Todd, is a shower.] 
A kind of smooth small hail or snow, not falling in flakes, 
but single particles. 
Now van to van the foremost squadrons meet. 
The midmost battles hastening up behind, 
Who view, far off", the storm of falling sleet. 
And hear their thunder rattling in the wind. Dry den. 
Shower of any thing falling thick. 
[They] flying, behind them, shot 
Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face 
Of their pursuers. Milton. 
To SLEET, v. n. To snow in small particles intermixed 
with rain. 
SLEETS, in Gunnery, are the parts of a mortar, passing 
from the chamber to the trunnions, for strengthening that 
part. 
SLEE’TY, adj. Bringing sleet. 
The sleety storm returning still. 
The morning hoar, and evening chill. Warton. 
SLEEVE, s. [j-lyp, Saxon; formerly called eapm-plife, 
that with which the arm is covered. The part of a garment 
that covers the arms. 
Once my well waiting eyes espy’d my treasure. 
With sleeves turn’d up, loose hair, and breast enlarged. 
Her father’s corn, moving her fair limbs, measure. Sidney. 
Sleeve, in some provinces, signifies a knot or skein of 
silk, which is by some very probably supposed to be its 
meaning in the following passage :—Sleep that knits up the 
ravell’d sleave of care. Shakspeare. —To laugh in the 
sleeve. This proverbial phrase Dr. Johnson ascribes to the 
Dutch sleeve, a cover, any thing spread over. It is more 
likely, as Mr. Bagshaw observes, to be taken from the large 
sleeves which our countrymen formerly wore, by which they 
might easily conceal part of the countenance, and so laugh 
unperceived.—John laughed heartily in his sleeve at the 
pride of the esquire. Arbuthnot. —To hang on a sleeve ; 
to make dependent. Probably from the custom noticed by 
Spenser, under the first definition, of wearing a lady’s sleeve ; 
which was in token of dependance on her love.—It is not 
for a man which doth know, or should know what orders, 
and what peaceable government requireth, to ask why we 
should hang our judgment upon the church’s sleeve, 
and why in matters of orders more than in matters of doc¬ 
trine. Hooker. —[ Lo/ligo, Lat.] A fish. Ainsworth. 
SLEE'VED, adj. Having sleeves. 
SLEE'VELESS, adj. Wanting sleeves; having no 
sleeves. 
Behold yon isle by palmers, pilgrims trod, 
Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others. 
Pope. 
Wanting reasonableness; wanting propriety; want¬ 
ing solidity. Obsolete. —No more but no, a sleeveless 
reason. Milton. 
To SLEID, v. a. To prepare for use in the weaver’s sley, 
or slay. See To Sley. Percy , 
She weav’d the sleided silk 
With fingers long. Shakspeare. 
SLEIDAN (John), a celebrated historian, was bom 
in 1506 at Sleidan, a small town at Cologne. He 
is chiefly known as an author by a work, entitled “ De 
Statu Religionis et Reipublicae Carolo Quinto Caesare, 
Commentaria, Lib. XXV.,” which was first published in 
] 555. It comprehends the history of his own times, from 
1517 to the year of its publication, and has always been in 
great credit among the Protestants; though it has been 
charged with partiality by Catholic writers, and by the 
adherents of the emperor Charles. “ Much of it,” says his 
biographer, “ is extracted from public records, and from the 
archives of the city of Strasburg, with which he was furnished 
by his friend J. Sturmius.” De Thou speaks of it as a work 
drawn up “ exacta fide et diligentia,” and he praises very 
highly the writer’s learning and talents for business. This 
work has been translated into several modern languages: 
the French version was made by Le Courayer. Another 
celebrated 
