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Noun: sleeper  slee-pu(r)
  1. Someone who is sleeping
    - slumberer
     
  2. A spy, saboteur or terrorist planted in an enemy country who lives there as a law-abiding citizen until activated by a prearranged signal
     
  3. An unexpected achiever of success
    "the winner was a true sleeper--no one expected him to get it"
     
  4. [Brit] One of the cross braces that support the rails on a railway track
    "the British call a railway tie a sleeper";
    - tie [N. Amer], railroad tie [N. Amer], crosstie [N. Amer]
     
  5. A passenger car that has berths for sleeping
    - sleeping car, wagon-lit
     
  6. [N. Amer] Pyjamas with feet; worn by children
     
  7. [N. Amer] A piece of furniture that can be opened up into a bed
     
  8. Tropical fish that resembles a goby and rests quietly on the bottom in shallow water
    - sleeper goby
     
  9. An unexpected hit
    "that movie was the sleeper of the summer"
     
  10. A structural beam in a floor

Derived forms: sleepers

Type of: achiever, article of furniture, bang [informal], brace, bracing, carriage, coach, diversionist, furniture, hit, jammies [N. Amer, informal], jim-jams [Brit, informal], pajama, passenger car, percoid, percoid fish, percoidean, piece of furniture, pj's [informal], pyjama, rester, saboteur, sizzler [informal], smash, smasher [informal], spy, strike, succeeder, success, terrorist, undercover agent, winner, wrecker

Part of: Eleotridae, family Eleotridae, railroad [N. Amer], railroad track [N. Amer], railway [Brit, Cdn], railway track [Brit, Cdn], sleeper nest

Encyclopedia: Sleeper, Thomas