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sleep off

B1 informal separable transitive
In simple words

Get rid of a bad feeling by going to sleep.

Literal meaning: To sleep something off your body — to remove it by sleeping.

Meanings

1 B1 idiomatic informal

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
Grammar: separable
2 B1 idiomatic informal

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."

Grammar: separable
3 B2 idiomatic informal

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."

Grammar: separable
Usage notes

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.

Commonly used with

hangover headache meal jetlag tiredness effects

Forms

Base
sleep off
I/you/we/they
3rd person
sleeps off
he/she/it
Past simple
slept off
yesterday
Past participle
slept off
have + pp
-ing form
sleeping off
continuous

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