forsleep means to be overcome with sleep. It carries an Arena rating of 1680, earned across 30 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, forsleep ranks #835 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #1,066 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,680 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,810 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
Why “forsleep” is a great word
FORSLEEP — [Verb] To be overcome by sleep, or to neglect something by sleeping through it. From Middle English forslepen, from the prefix for- (implying loss, destruction, or intensity) + sleep. Cognate with West Frisian forsliepe and German verschlafen. First attested before 1382. Unlike "oversleep," which narrowly marks a temporal failure, or "slumber," which suggests a gentle, voluntary repose, to forsleep is to be vanquished by a profound, almost hostile drowsiness. It is the stupefying weight that pins a scholar to his desk at noon, the stolen hour that lets the crucial pot boil dry, and the profound surrender that turns a sentinel's watch into a vacant post. Consciousness is a temporary state, and oblivion will always collect its due.
Etymology
From Middle English forslepen, equivalent to for- + sleep. Cognate with West Frisian forsliepe (“to forsleep”), Dutch verslapen (“to sleep off, sleep away”), German verschlafen (“to sleep away, oversleep”).
verb
- To be overcome with sleep.
- To neglect through sleep or by sleeping; sleep through; oversleep; sleep off.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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