forty winks
/ˌfɔɹti ˈwɪŋks/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.78 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Near-synonyms: shut-eye, twenty winks; see also Thesaurus:shut-eye"
- "As you’re so tired, why not try to catch forty winks before you leave?"
- "Is it not better Economy of Time, to go to sleep for half an hour,—than to go on noodling all day in a nerveless and semi-superannuated state— […] for any purpose requiring the Energy of either the Body, or the Mind. "A Forty Winks Nap," in a horizontal posture, is the best preparative for any extraordinary exertion of either."
- "John hitches himself in his oaken settle, and yawns awake from the "forty winks" in which he has indulged after his day's work: […]"
- "[T]hey cuddled in comfortably for forty winks before the anthem [during a church service]."
- "Mr Bloom in the meanwhile kept dodging about in the vicinity of the cobblestones near the brazier of coke in front of the corporation watchman's sentrybox, who, evidently a glutton for work, it struck him, was having a quiet forty winks for all intents and purposes on his own private account while Dublin slept."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌfɔɹti ˈwɪŋks/
- British English: /ˌfɔːti ˈwɪŋks/