Lexic.us

Definition of Put to sleep

1. Verb. Help someone go to bed. "Mother put the baby to sleep"

2. Verb. Kill gently, as with an injection. "The cat was very ill and we had to put it to sleep"

Definition of Put to sleep

1. Verb. To cause (someone) to sleep. ¹

2. Verb. To help (someone) to bed. ¹

3. Verb. (figuratively) To render dormant. ¹

4. Verb. (euphemistic) To kill an animal painlessly, often with an injection; to euthanize. ¹

5. Verb. (informal) To give a general anesthetic prior to surgery. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Put To Sleep

put the pedal to the metal put the plug in the jug put the wind up put through put through its paces put through the mangle put through the wringer put to put to bed put to bed with a shovel

put to death put to rest put to sleep (current term) put to the sword put to the test put to use put to work put together put two and two together put under

put up put up a fight put up one's dukes put up or shut up put up the shutters put up with put upon

Literary usage of Put to sleep

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Doctor, &c by Robert Southey (1836)
"... OWN IMAGINATIONS THAN put to sleep BY THEM HIMSELF, WHATEVER MAY BE THEIR EFFECT UPON HIS READERS. Thou sleepest worse than if a mouse should be forced ..."

2. William Winston Seaton of the "National Intelligencer".: A Biographical Sketch by Josephine Seaton (1871)
"A young Englishwoman, a servant-maid, was frequently put to sleep, and upon trial it was found that I had the power- over her. I witnessed the influence it ..."

3. The Popular Science Monthly (1880)
"The moment when they were put to sleep is confounded with the moment of waking. It also happens that what took place during sleep returns to their memory ..."

4. Notes on the Development of a Child by Milicent Washburn Shinn (1893)
"... and excitement kept her from sleep; and the next evening she cried over being put to sleep because she was disappointed at having to leave a plaything. ..."

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