# What is a 'dog-sleep'?

A 'dog-sleep' is a pretended sleep — from the idea that dogs seem to sleep with one eye open. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), human-proofread transcription on English Wikisource records: “( A ). A pretended sleep. Dogs seem to sleep with "one eye open."”

## What it means

- Verbatim from Brewer's (1898): ( A ). A pretended sleep. Dogs seem to sleep with "one eye open."

## Action steps

1. Modern usage: A 'dog-sleep' is a pretended sleep — from the idea that dogs seem to sleep with one eye open.
2. When quoting the origin, cite Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — this is a 19th-century record, not a modern etymology.

## Sources

- [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) — Wikisource proofread text](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Brewer%27s_Dictionary_of_Phrase_and_Fable/Dog-sleep)

---
Canonical: https://bestidiomanswers.com/answers/dog-sleep
Author: Best Idiom Answers — https://bestidiomanswers.com
Publisher: Best Idiom Answers
Published: 2026-07-18T14:09:18.640416+00:00
Modified: 2026-07-18T14:34:10.39672+00:00
Last verified: 2026-07-18
License: Citation License 1.0 — https://bestexpertanswers.com/license
© Adolicious LLC