Sleeping-house, subs. phr. (B. E. c. 1696).—'Sleepinge House, without Shop, Ware-House, or Cellar, only for a private Family.'
Sleeping-partner, subs. phr.
(Grose).—1. 'A partner in a
trade, or shop, who lends his name
and money, for which he receives
a share of the profit, without
doing any part of the business.'
2. (common).—A bed-fellow.
Sleepy, adj. and adv. (old).—Much
worn; threadbare: e.g., a sleepy
pear = a pear beginning to decay;
a sleepless-hat = shabby headgear
'with nap worn off' (Grose).
See Golgotha.
Sleepy-head, subs. phr. (common).—A
dullard.
Sleepy Queens (The), subs. phr.
(military).—The Queen's Royal
Regiment, late the 2nd Foot.
Sleepy-seed, subs. phr. (nursery).—In
pl. = The mucous secretion
about the eyelids during sleep:
cf. Sand-man.
Sleeve. Here occur one or two
Phrases and Colloquialisms:
To hang on (or upon) a
sleeve = to be dependent; to
laugh in one's sleeves = to
deride or exult in secret (B. E.);
to wear one's heart upon
one's sleeve = to make no
mystery, to be artless; in (or up)
one's sleeve = hidden, in reserve,
ready for use; to pin to
one's sleeve = to flaunt; to
hang on another's sleeve =
to accept another's authority.
1546. Heywood, Proverbs. To laugh in my sleeve.
1580. Lyly, Euphues [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 607. Among the verbs are match (marry), pin a man to her sleeve].
1589. Puttenham, Art of Eng. Poesy, 251. The better to winne his purposes . . . to have a iourney or sicknesse in his sleeve, thereby to shake off other importunities of greater consequence.
d. 1600. Hooker, Eccles. Polity [Ency. Dict.]. It is not . . . to ask why we should hang our judgment upon the Church's sleeve.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, i. 1. I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at.
1713. Arbuthnot, Hist. John Bull. John laughed heartily in his sleeve at the pride of the esquire.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 79. I made him a thousand low bows though I felt for him in my sleeve the contempt and hatred, &c. Ibid., 227. I could not help laughing in my sleeve when I considered who and what they were.
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, ii. Sir Everard was a close enough old man . . . We, none of us, wear our hearts on our sleeve. Ibid., viii. He is the equal of any man. The sort of fellow who always has something up his sleeve.
Sleeveboard, subs. (tailors').—A
hard word to pronounce; a jawbreaker
(q.v.).
Sleeveless, adj., (old).—Fruitless;
inadequate; wanting a cover or
excuse; 'impertinent or trifling'
(Bailey): now only in phrase,
'a sleeveless errand' = (B. E.
and Grose) 'a fool's errand, in
search of what it is impossible to
find,' Chaucer, Test. Love, ii.
334.
14[?]. Reliq. Antiq., i. 83. Syrrus, thynke not lonke, and y schall tell yow a sleveles reson.
1579. Lyly, Euphues, 'Anat. of Wit,' 114. Neither faine for thy selfe any sleeveless excuse.
1593. Passionate Morrice [Shaks. Soc.], 63. Shee had dealt better if shee had sent himselfe away with a crabbed answere, then so vnmannerly to vse him by sleeveles excuses.
1599. Hall, Satires, iv. 1. Worse than the logogryphes of later times, Or hundreth riddles shak'd to sleevelesse rhymes.
