I just mentioned on another thread that I "slept late" today, meaning that I awoke late. I've heard people say that they "slept in," which always sounds a little odd to me because unless you're camping somewhere you are unlikely to have "slept out."
I'm in the Midwest (Chicago), and I wonder if expressions like this one are regional.
I started hearing "slept in" here on the East Coast about 20 years ago, I think. Before then it was always "slept late" which is still the only thing that comes naturally to me.
Thanks. Your comment about its first appearance, or your first recollection of it, makes me wonder if the change is a generational one.
Younger generation reporting: I think I only hear "sleep in". But often it's "slept in late," possibly marking a difference between "I slept in today" (= I normally get up at 7, but now it was 8) and "I slept in late today" (I normally get up at 7, but now I stayed in bed until noon.)
I'm in the UK, and 'slept in' is the usual phrase here (both Scotland and England) -usually without 'late' at the end.
Thinking about it, I'd use just 'slept in' to express that I missed my alarm and ended up late for something; I might use 'slept in a bit late' if I had no particular reason to get up (e.g. a weekend) but woke later than I'd wanted to... and at the other end of the spectrum -if I'd had no intention of getting up early, and deliberately wanted to catch up on sleep - more natural phrases would be 'I had a lie-in' or 'I had a long-lie'.
more natural phrases would be 'I had a lie-in'
That's what I would usually say too (UK). 'Slept in' sounds fine; 'slept late' doesn't sound as natural to me.
Do people still use "overslept"?
"Overslept" has a different meaning. To oversleep means to wake up later than you had intended. To sleep in / have a lie-in / sleep late means to deliberately stay in bed until late in the morning. The former is a mistake, the latter is something most people like to do on Saturday mornings.