A Sleeper Is a Train, a Beam, a Spy, and a Surprise Hit
A sleeper is someone asleep, a sleeping car, a railway beam and an agent lying low. Four meanings from one quiet word.
A sleeper is someone who is asleep — and then the word goes travelling. A sleeper is an overnight train, a *railway sleeper* is the beam under the rails, a *sleeper agent* is a spy living an ordinary life until activated, and a *sleeper hit* is a film or record that succeeds long after release. The link is always something inactive that later matters.
- Someone asleep. *A heavy sleeper.*
- An overnight train. *The Caledonian sleeper.*
- A beam supporting rails. *Concrete sleepers.*
- An inactive agent. *A sleeper cell.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | sleeper | A light sleeper. |
| Plural | sleepers | Wooden sleepers. |
| American | tie | Railroad ties. |
| Compound | sleeper hit | A sleeper hit. |
| Compound | sleeper cell | A sleeper cell. |
How it is used in a sentence
- We took the sleeper to Inverness.Overnight train.
- The old sleepers were sold for garden edging.Railway beams.
- The album was a sleeper hit.Successful long after release.
On the railway
- Sleeper / tie — the beam holding the rails to gauge
- Ballast — the stone bed the sleepers sit in
- Gauge — the distance between the rails
- Points / switch — the moving rails that divert trains
- Sleeper car — a carriage with berths
From *sleep*, Old English *slæpan*, plus *-er*. The railway sense comes from the beam lying still beneath the track, not from anyone sleeping on it.
Why is a railway beam called a sleeper?
From an older sense of sleeper meaning a horizontal beam lying flat, recorded in building before railways existed.
What is a sleeper hit?
Something that sells slowly at first and becomes a success later, often by word of mouth.