big sleep

English

Etymology

Apparently coined by novelist Raymond Chandler, author of The Big Sleep (1939).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

big sleep

1. (idiomatic, euphemistic, almost always preceded by the) Death. [from 1930s]

   Synonyms: dirt nap, sleep of the just; see also Thesaurus:death

   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 250:

     What did it matter where you lay once you were dead? In a dirty sump or in a marble tower on top of a high hill? You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that.

   • 1967, “When the Music’s Over”, in Strange Days, performed by The Doors:

     Before I sink into the big sleep / I want to hear / The scream of the butterfly

Translations

type of sleep used as euphemism for death

Finnish: ikiuni (fi)

Further reading

• “big sleep”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.