To recover from something unpleasant, such as a hangover, illness, or bad mood, by sleeping.
Get rid of a bad feeling by going to sleep.
3 meanings, ordered from most common to least. Color-coded by CEFR level.
To recover from the effects of alcohol by sleeping.
"He drank too much at the party and went straight to bed to sleep it off."
Sleep it off, soldier.
— M*A*S*H, TV series (various episodes), CBS, 1972–1983
To recover from an illness, headache, tiredness, or jetlag by sleeping.
"She felt a migraine coming on, so she lay down to sleep it off before the meeting."
To sleep after eating a large meal, allowing the body to digest.
"After the Thanksgiving feast, everyone flopped on the sofa to sleep off the turkey."
To sleep something off your body — to remove it by sleeping.
Get rid of a bad feeling by going to sleep.
Very commonly used with 'hangover', 'headache', 'jetlag', and 'meal'. The object usually comes after 'off' unless it is a pronoun ('sleep it off'). The pronoun form 'sleep it off' is extremely fixed and common.
Natural word combinations native speakers use most often.
The five tense forms you'll use most often.
Listen to native speakers using "sleep off" in real YouTube videos — click a clip to watch it on Looplines.
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