different between comfort vs sleep

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English conforten, from Old French conforter, from Late Latin confort? (“to strengthen greatly”), itself from Latin con- (“together”) + fortis (“strong”).

The noun is from Middle English confort, from Old French cunfort, confort, from the stem of Late Latin confort?. It replaced Old English frofor, Middle English frovre.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t/
• (General American) enPR: k?m'f?rt, IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t/, [?k???.f?t]
• (obsolete) enPR: k?mfôrt', IPA^(key): /k?m?f??t/

Noun

comfort (countable and uncountable, plural comforts)

1. Contentment, ease.

2. Something that offers comfort.

3. A consolation; something relieving suffering or worry.

4. A cause of relief or satisfaction.

Synonyms

• liss

Antonyms

• (contentment, ease): austerity

Translations

Verb

comfort (third-person singular simple present comforts, present participle comforting, simple past and past participle comforted)

1. (transitive) To relieve the distress or suffering of; to provide comfort to.
2. (transitive) To make comfortable. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (obsolete) To make strong; to invigorate; to fortify; to corroborate.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)

   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     God's own testimony […] doth not a little comfort and confirm the same.

4. (obsolete) To assist or help; to aid.

Synonyms

• besoothe

Translations

Derived terms

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch confoort, from Old French confort.

Pronunciation

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /k?m?f??r/
• (Belgium) IPA^(key): /k?m?f?r(t)/
• Hyphenation: com?fort

Noun

comfort n (plural comforts, diminutive comfortje n)

1. Physical comfort, ease.

Derived terms

• comfortabel
• ligcomfort
• rijcomfort
• zitcomfort

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sl?p, IPA^(key): /sli?p/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /slip/
• Rhymes: -i?p

Etymology 1

From Middle English slepen, from Old English sl?pan, from Proto-West Germanic *sl?pan, from Proto-Germanic *sl?pan?.

Verb

sleep (third-person singular simple present sleeps, present participle sleeping, simple past and past participle slept)

1. (intransitive) To rest in a state of reduced consciousness.
   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     We sleep in the bedroom.

2. (intransitive, of a spinning top or yo-yo) To spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
3. (transitive) To cause (a spinning top or yo-yo) to spin on its axis with no other perceptible motion.
   • 1995, All Aboard for Space: Introducing Space to Youngsters (page 158)

     Yo-yo tricks involving sleeping the yo-yo (like "walking the dog" and "rocking the baby") cannot be performed in space.

4. (transitive) To accommodate in beds.

5. (transitive) To be slumbering in (a state).

6. (intransitive) To be careless, inattentive, or unconcerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly.
   • September 28, 1706, Francis Atterbury, a sermon

     We sleep over our happiness.

7. (intransitive) To be dead; to lie in the grave.
8. (intransitive) To be, or appear to be, in repose; to be quiet; to be unemployed, unused, or unagitated; to rest; to lie dormant.
9. (computing, intransitive) To wait for a period of time without performing any action.

10. (computing, transitive) To place into a state of hibernation.
    • 2009, Mike Lee, Scott Meyers, Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard (page 91)

      Even when you have reasons not to sleep the computer, it's still a good idea to sleep the display after a period of time.

11. (Discuss⁽⁺⁾ this sense) (transitive) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Troponyms

• (rest in a state of reduced consciousness): nap, doze, snooze

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English slepe, sleep, sleepe, from Old English sl?p (“sleep”), from Proto-West Germanic *sl?p, from Proto-Germanic *sl?paz (“sleep”).

Noun

sleep (countable and uncountable, plural sleeps)

1. (uncountable) The state of reduced consciousness during which a human or animal rests in a daily rhythm.

2. (countable, informal) An act or instance of sleeping.

3. (informal, metonymically) A night.

4. (uncountable) Rheum, crusty or gummy discharge found in the corner of the eyes after waking, whether real or a figurative objectification of sleep (in the sense of reduced consciousness).

   Synonyms: (informal) sleepy, (informal) sleeper, (informal) sleepy dust, (slang) crusty, (UK dialectal) gound

   • 2017, Adam J. Fisch, Neuroanatomy: Draw It to Know It, Oxford University Press (?ISBN):

     [...] and draw the medial canthus (aka medial commissure) at the medial extreme. Now draw the lacrimal caruncle at the medial corner of the eye, which produces whitish, oily fluid—it produces “sleep in the eye.”

   • 2019, Jahangir Moini, Anatomy and Physiology for Health Professionals, Jones & Bartlett Learning (?ISBN), page 780, entry "Medial canthus":

     The part of the eyelid that is the location of the lacrimal caruncle, which produces rheum or "sleep," the gritty substance often present when awakening.

5. A state of plants, usually at night, when their leaflets approach each other and the flowers close and droop, or are covered by the folded leaves.

   Synonyms: nyctinasty, nyctitropism

   • 1843, Joh Müller, John Bell, Elements of Physiology, page 808:

     The daily sleep of plants, and their winter sleep, present in this respect exactly similar phenomena […]

6. The hibernation of animals.

Synonyms

• see also Thesaurus:sleep
• (mucus in the eyes): sleepies, bed booger(s), eye bogey(s), eye bogie(s), eye booger(s), eye crust, eye goop(s), eye gunk(s), eye sand, eye-snot, eye snot, sleepy booger(s)

Derived terms

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “sleep”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

Anagrams

• LEEPs, Leeps, Lepes, peels, speel

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sle?p/
• Rhymes: -e?p

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

sleep m (plural slepen, diminutive sleepje n)

1. (the act of) dragging, towing
2. train, the part of wedding gown that drags behind the bride

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

sleep

1. singular past indicative of slijpen

Verb

sleep

1. first-person singular present indicative of slepen
2. imperative of slepen

Anagrams

• slepe, speel, spele

Middle English

Noun

sleep (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of slepe