What is the origin of 'sleep tight'?
Read moreOne of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
noun
mass noun1A state of extreme physical or mental tiredness.
‘he was pale with exhaustion’- ‘The peak summer heat results in extraordinary mental and physical exhaustion, sleeplessness and occasionally depression.’
- ‘He was unable to speak from exhaustion, physical pain and mental anguish.’
- ‘But when things are liberated, they pass into extreme forms and exhaustion, culminating in a new kind of imprisonment.’
- ‘Supreme confusion warred with mental exhaustion for dominance over her visage.’
- ‘Mental and physical exhaustion retards the growth of body and mind, and it often causes a psychosomatic illness.’
- ‘Steve was napping frequently, though I think it may have been photo trip fatigue rather than physical exhaustion.’
- ‘They've played before and are a perfect match when it comes to energy levels and desire to terrorize the other until both have passed out from mental exhaustion.’
- ‘Nothing is worse than chronic irritability, a feeling of exhaustion and mental fatigue.’
- ‘She will demonstrate how to resolve problems such as anxiety, mental exhaustion, digestive and skin problems using herbs.’
- ‘What was most striking about the run-up to the peace deal was the morbid fixation on the physical and mental exhaustion of the parties.’
- ‘The American star admitted herself to hospital late on Wednesday, suffering from extreme exhaustion.’
- ‘Naturally, such acute physical exhaustion has a direct mental parallel.’
- ‘Physical exhaustion contributes to errors of judgement, just as machine fatigue contributes to breakdowns and malfunctions.’
- ‘It was as though her mental exhaustion had infiltrated her physical being.’
- ‘Jengo was finding it hard to catch up with Shi, due to extreme exhaustion.’
- ‘After five weeks in combat these soldiers sunk into a state of extreme exhaustion and lassitude.’
- ‘In the light of an electric bulb dazzling at a distance, you try to study his face for signs of exhaustion - physical as well as emotional.’
- ‘The medical costs of caring for him and the mental anxiety and exhaustion of living with him finally overwhelmed her.’
- ‘The combat life of this famous pilot was not the fanciful image of an undaunted superhero but one of considerable physical and mental exhaustion as well as trauma.’
- ‘With burnout, the professional loses the ability to cope with daily life as a function of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.’
extreme tiredness, overtiredness, fatigue, weariness, lack of energy, enervation, debilitation, debility, faintness, prostration, enfeeblement, lassitudeView synonyms2The action of using something up or the state of being used up.
‘the rapid exhaustion of fossil fuel reserves’- ‘Government policy of granting very small claims gave everyone a chance, but also led to rapid exhaustion of claims and large rushes to new fields.’
- ‘At last, farmers escaped from the vicious trade-off between soil exhaustion and leaving land idle.’
- ‘In every case, it said finite reserves of these minerals were approaching exhaustion and prices would rise steeply.’
- ‘Bahrain was the first Gulf Arab state to produce oil, in 1932, but its reserves are now near exhaustion.’
- ‘He decided to make a precautionary landing on an interstate highway as his fuel supply neared exhaustion.’
- ‘As the stock of the DAT nears exhaustion, perhaps we should be considering a CD version.’
- ‘This egg quality decline was attributed to the exhaustion of lipid and protein reserves required to produce viable eggs.’
- ‘Each day, populations alternated between active growth and nutrient exhaustion.’
- ‘MacLean briefly discusses the exhaustion of southern soils.’
- ‘The practice of burning stubble in the cereal region also increased soil exhaustion.’
- ‘The exhaustion of a deposit, the discovery of new reserves, civil war, a change in government, or a new trade agreement can affect supplies.’
- ‘Any treatment that can improve the healing of pressure ulcers will be beneficial in preventing the exhaustion of medical resources.’
- ‘The collapse of complex societies follows exhaustion of resources, climatological change and/or increasing levels of entropy.’
- ‘Of course, at high levels, geographic concentration of organizations may signal intense localized competition and exhaustion of resources.’
- ‘It is the world's largest violin playing just for the exhaustion of our natural resources.’
- ‘In essence, imperial overstretch demonstrates how America's ongoing exhaustion of its economic resources undermines important national security objectives.’
consumption, depletion, using up, expenditureView synonyms3Logic
The process of establishing a conclusion by eliminating all the alternatives.- ‘Euclid and Archimedes utilized two important techniques to prove theorems from their axioms: reductio ad absurdum arguments, and a method of exhaustion.’
- ‘This would be an improvement on Antiphon's argument and Bryson is getting close to the method of exhaustion as rigorously applied by Archimedes.’
- ‘This argument from exhaustion is not conclusive.’
- ‘This result, discovered by a heuristic argument, can be converted into a rigorous proof by using the method of exhaustion or integration.’
- ‘Maclaurin appealed to the geometrical methods of the ancient Greeks and to Archimedes' method of exhaustion in attempting to put Newton's calculus on a rigorous footing.’
Origin
Early 17th century: from late Latin exhaustio(n-), from Latin exhaurire ‘drain out’ (see exhaust).
