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1625, Francis , “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes, 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
Therefore let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by wise judged confined in the execution […]
1958, Duncan Leroy Kennedy, Bill drafting, page 12:
The object of these provisions is to prevent insertion of "jokers" or "sleepers" in bills and securing passage under the false color of the title.
1969, United States Congress, Departments of Treasury and Post Office and Executive Office Appropriations for 1970: Hearings, (91st Congress, First Session, parts 2-3), page 479:
We are up against the pros; and pros who have been involved in this kind of activity for many years. […] The public apathy today is disturbing — few realize, Mr. Chairman, that there are sleepers in this country and we know that they are able to manipulate at will behind the scenes.
A small starterearring, worn to prevent a piercing from closing.
We spent a night on an uncomfortable sleeper between Athens and Vienna.
1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:
It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.
A type of pajama for a person, especially a child, that covers the whole body, including the feet.
Aaron, Devin, and Laura looked so comfy in their sleepers.
(automotive,slang) An automobile which has been internally modified to excess, while retaining a mostly stock appearance in order to fool opponents in a drag race, or to avoid the attention of the police.
1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40:
The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates.
1961 July, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 401:
I should imagine that the smooth riding and the quietness of the diesel or electric cab, coupled with the effect on the eyes of endless successions of sleepers disappearing from sight immediately under the driver's eyes, might in time have a soporific effect, so that the company of a second man, who can assist in signal observations when he is not at work in the engine cab, seems highly desirable in such conditions.
(carpentry) A structural beam in a floor running perpendicular to both the joists beneath and floorboards above.
(nautical) A heavy floor timber in a ship's bottom.
Sleeper in the 1920 edition of Encyclopedia Americana.
railway sleeper on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
