sleeper

sleeper

1. a railway sleeping car or compartment

2. Brit one of the blocks supporting the rails on a railway track

3. a wrestling hold in which a wrestler presses the sides of his opponent's neck, causing him to pass out

4. any gobioid fish of the family Eleotridae, of brackish or fresh tropical waters, resembling the gobies but lacking a ventral sucker

5. a spy planted in advance for future use, but not currently active

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Sleeper

A horizontal timber laid on a slab or on the ground and to which the subflooring is nailed; any long horizontal beam, at or near the ground, which distributes the load from the posts to the foundation.

Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

sleeper

[′slēp·ər]

(civil engineering)

A timber, steel, or precast concrete beam placed under rails to hold them at the correct gage.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

sleeper

1. One of a number of horizontal timbers that are laid on a concrete slab (or on the ground) and to which the flooring is nailed.

2. Any long horizontal beam, at or near the ground, which distributes the load from posts or framing.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.