Put/send/lay someone to sleep

Question

Hello.I found here http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+to+sleep that "to put someone to sleep" has three meanings:a) to cause someone or an animal to sleep, perhaps through drugs or anesthesia.b) to kill someone or an animal.c) to bore someone.Are "to send someone to sleep" and "to lay someone to sleep" synonyms of the above?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

ReegisAre "to send someone to sleep" and "to lay someone to sleep" synonyms of the above?

No. Idioms are extremely sensitive to word substitution. If something is marked "idiom" in a dictionary or thesaurus, you change just a single word at your own peril.

We native speakers find it very amusing is when non-natives make these substitutions. This phenomenon is exploited to the limit in the novels of Agatha Christie, where the detective Poirot, a Belgian, is constantly slaughtering English with word substitutions in idioms. Here are a few examples from the TV series. I can't be sure they are direct quotations from the novels, but they illustrate the point:

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a crumble. (crumble instead of pie)
My friend, you are barking up the wrong bush. (bush instead of tree)
I think better the safeness than the sorrow. (Better safe than sorry.)

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Reegis"to lay someone to sleep"

There is one specific idiom with this expression. It's history goes back to 1711, and it was made popular in the US by being printed in thehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_England_Primer which was used for many many years in primary school.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take

Reegis · Answer

This is interesting:) Then one lesson to me is that I need to be very careful when learning English via watching English-speaking movies...

CalifJim
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a crumble. (crumble instead of pie)

I didn't understand this one

So if they are not synonyms, could you please explain what "to send someone to sleep" and "to lay someone to sleep" mean?

I tried to google it further and it looks like a and c meanings still stand for "to send someone to sleep" - we just need to discount b.

AlpheccaStars
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

Hmmm, it seems "to lay someone to sleep" has religious connotations. I found this phrase in this sentence:

Mary laid Jesus to sleep in a manger full of hay.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

ReegisHmmm, it seems "to lay someone to sleep" has religious connotations.

No, it's just very old-fashioned. A lot of religious text uses old-style language.

ReegisFour and twenty blackbirds baked in a crumble. (crumble instead of pie)

It's from an old nursery rhyme.

Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king.
The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

CalifJim · Answer

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a crumble. (crumble instead of pie)

I didn't understand this one.

Poirot substitutes the name of one pastry for another.

crumble: noun British

1A mixture of flour and butter that is rubbed to the texture of breadcrumbs and cooked as a topping for fruit.

1.1 A dessert made with crumble and a particular fruit.
‘rhubarb crumble’

CJ

Reegis · Answer

Thanks. Now I see the difference

Let me sum up:

1) "to put someone to sleep"

a) to cause someone or an animal to sleep, perhaps through drugs or anesthesia.

b) to kill someone or an animal.

c) to bore someone.

2) "to send someone to sleep"

a) and c)

3) "to lay someone to sleep"

The only meaning is the literal one.

Could you please confirm?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

CalifJimcrumble: noun British

We also use crumble in the US as the name of a luscious sweet fruit pie.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Reegis2) "to send someone to sleep"

I have never hear it used, nor do I use this.

I have used and heard "put to sleep" in all the listed meanings.

Reegis · Answer

I found it here:

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/put-send-someone-to-sleep

Perhaps it is rarely used or some jargon...

Now I think that more or less I understand all of them. The most troublesome was the one with 'lay'.

Thanks for your help.

CalifJim · Answer

AlpheccaStars
CalifJimcrumble: noun British
We also use crumble in the US as the name of a luscious sweet fruit pie.

Yes. That dictionary notation completely surprised me as well.

CJ

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