fall asleep
Formsfalls asleep, falling asleep, fell asleep, fallen asleep
- 1To pass from being awake into sleep; to start sleeping.
Many people can't fall asleep after drinking coffee in the evening.
By the time the movie ended, half the audience had fallen asleep.
Note
The verb at work is fall in its linking role, as in fall ill or fall silent, so the phrase keeps fall's irregular forms: she fell asleep, she had fallen asleep. Asleep itself is an adjective that stands after a verb, never before a noun, which is why English says a sleeping child, not an asleep child.
- 2Of a body part, to go numb or tingle with the prickling feeling of pins and needles.
If I sit cross-legged for too long, my legs fall asleep.
Halfway through the flight his left foot had fallen asleep, and he limped to the restroom.
Note
Medicine calls the feeling paresthesia; everyday English says a limb has fallen asleep. The subject is always the body part, a leg, a foot, an arm, and the present perfect is the natural tense for the moment of noticing: my left leg has fallen asleep! The prickling as feeling returns is what people call pins and needles.
- 3A gentle, poetic way of saying to die, often seen in the wording on gravestones.
Mourners prayed for all who fall asleep in hope of the resurrection.
The inscription on the old headstone reads, "Fell asleep in Jesus, May 4, 1887."
Similardie
Note
Picturing death as sleep is an old habit: the King James Bible of 1611 tells how a dying man prays "Lord lay not this sinne to their charge" and then "fell asleepe". In ordinary conversation the phrase would be taken literally, so outside scripture, prayer and memorial wording it works only where the sentence is plainly about a death.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of fall asleep apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.