Rip Van Winkle
(fiction, US) A Dutch-American villager who falls asleep for 20 years and wakes up to a changed world, having missed the American Revolution; (by extension) someone or something stuck in the past.
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Born ~1819 · 1 year of recorded useDefinitions
(fiction, US) A Dutch-American villager who falls asleep for 20 years and wakes up to a changed world, having missed the American Revolution; (by extension) someone or something stuck in the past.
That is, it makes a lot of sense to see Biden’s problems getting his plans across the finish line as being caused by the Rip Van Winkle caucus, Democrats who checked out intellectually a couple of decades ago and haven’t caught up with A…
“🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Modern day "Rip Van Winkle". 💯”
— Bluesky· May 2026
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Semantically related
- asnooze51%
An informal, somewhat whimsical adjective meaning asleep. Typically used in a lighthearted or literary register to describe someone who is sleeping, particularly when the speaker wants to avoid bluntness or add a touch of gentle humor. More likely to appear in writing or affected speech than in everyday conversation. The "a-" prefix construction echoes older English forms like "afoot" or "afire," giving the word a slightly archaic flavor.
- downstate50%
A period during sleep when somebody is not primed and not ready to learn.
- dormouse50%
(figuratively) A person who sleeps a great deal, or who falls asleep readily (by analogy with the sound hibernation of the dormouse).
- sleepy49%
Tending to induce sleep.
- hyperwoke49%
(slang) Extremely or excessively woke.