(British, slang) To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.
(British, slang) To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.
After the party, John let me doss down on the living-room floor.
Doss down means: To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.. It is informal slang, fine in casual speech but not suited to formal contexts. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than risky behaviour. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
Doss down means: To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.. It is informal slang, fine in casual speech but not suited to formal contexts. There is no real cause for parental concern; it is descriptive vocabulary rather than risky behaviour. If your teen uses it, context will usually make the intent clear. A short, curious question about where they heard it is usually all that is needed to know whether to follow up.
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(intransitive, British, AU, slang) To sleep, especially in the open or in a makeshift bed, commonly in a derelict building because one is homeless.
British slang meaning to sleep rough or bed down outside, typically used in the context of homelessness, camping out without gear, or crashing somewhere improvised in the open air. It extends the broader doss vocabulary — doss means to sleep or crash somewhere casual — with the out specifying an outdoor location. Often used without judgment, describing a practical situation rather than a moral one.
(slang, intransitive) To sleep outside.
(UK, slang) To sleep somewhere other than home, forced to do so by circumstances.
doss down means: To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.. Register: very informal, slang. Suitable only for casual conversation, chat and social media. Do not use in business, academic or news writing. A common learner mistake is using the word in a register it does not fit, or assuming a single global meaning; native speakers immediately notice when slang appears in formal contexts, so always check the surrounding register before producing it yourself.
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(military, slang) To sleep.
The fastidious and solitary public-schoolboy [George Orwell] dosses down with tramps and tarts and forces himself to endure bedbugs and chamberpots and lockups.
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