doss down
verb
Simple meaning
To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dawsdownSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɔsˈdaʊn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
britishslang
To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.
militaryslang
Sleep in a convenient place
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.
Used this way, doss down is a word tied to one variety of English that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Very casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Regional
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Usage note
Mainly used in British English, so it may read as unusual elsewhere.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.