sleep of the just
/ˈslip əv ðə ˈdʒʌst/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.03 in modern English
29
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Make your mind easy, Percival. Sleep, my son, the sleep of the just; and see what I will do for you when daylight comes to help us both."
- "Then—Smith went to bed, and slept the sleep of the just, with not a glimmering of an idea that he was not the unselfishest and lovingest of husbands."
- "He slept the sleep of the just, with just that gentle whisper of a snore which Aristotle hints at to prove that virtue being, as she must be, in the mean, doth in the neutral third of life maintain a middle course between loud snore and silent slumber."
- "That night, as Grimley Grange was sleeping the sleep of the just, two shadowy forms crept through the shrubbery by the library window with all the stealthiness of professional house-breakers."
- "After the gentleman and Senator [Mariano Jesús] Cuenco interpellated me, I knew already that my bill was hopeless. That is why I presented that bill on February 4th, but it slept the sleep of the just in the Committee on Education."
- "You would probably not say he was sleeping the sleep of the just, unless you meant the just asleep, but it was certainly the sleep of someone who was not fooling about when he climbed into bed of a night and turned off the light."
Etymology
From the idea that people who act justly have no worries and so sleep well, while unjust people are concerned about the consequences of their actions and so sleep poorly.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈslip əv ðə ˈdʒʌst/
- British English: /ˈsliːp əv ðə ˈdʒʌst/