Definition of Put to sleep

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

Generic synonyms: Put

2. Verb. Kill gently, as with an injection. "The cat was very ill and we had to put it to sleep"
Exact synonyms: Put Away
Generic synonyms: Kill

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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