Sleep like a log

Idiomatic Phrase
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

To sleep deeply and soundly without disturbance; compares stillness to log's immobility, emphasizing complete relaxation, unconsciousness, and freedom from waking during rest.

Detailed Definition
Sleep like a log means to sleep very deeply, heavily, and without disturbance. In poetry, the idiom compares the sleeper to inert wood, suggesting stillness, weight, and oblivion. It can appear warmly in domestic scenes, comically after exhaustion, or ominously when deep sleep resembles lifelessness. A poet may use it to contrast bodily rest with mental unrest elsewhere in the poem. The phrase is useful for exploring restoration, vulnerability, unconsciousness, and the boundary between sleep and death-like stillness.
Example
Example in poetry:
A pastoral poem might say the ploughman sleeps like a log after harvest; In comic verse, the watchman sleeps like a log while thieves carry off the gate; The phrase means to sleep very deeply; A poet can use it for exhaustion, peace, or irony.
Additional Notes
Sleep like a log means sleep deeply and without disturbance. The simile turns the sleeper into something heavy, inert, and unresponsive. In poetry, it can be comic, tender, or unsettling, depending on whether sound sleep suggests innocence, exhaustion, drunkenness, or emotional escape. Students should compare it with out like a light and catch some Z’s. The phrase pairs well with forests, timber, beds, silence, and the body’s surrender to rest.
Also Known As
soundly
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