Slept late? Slept in? Something else?

I wonder if this is a Briticism that has crossed the Atlantic. I'm really quite sure I never heard it from any American in my youth.

A comment on this US site asks

Can someone tell me the origin of the expression "sleep IN". When did it replace the usual "sleep late"?

and gets the response

I recall everyone using it at college in the early 1980s!

which may imply that it was new to that second poster in the early 1980s. I spent most of the 80s out of the country so it may well have arrived then. At any rate it tends to confirm that NA and I are not hallucinating when we think of it as relatively recent development in the US.

Edited by: VinnyD

The OED has sleep off and sleep out/away; and the Supplement has sleep rough and sleep around (O tempora!) but neither has an entry for "sleep in" (or "sleep late", which probably doesn't need one being self-explanatory).

I don't think anyone has mentioned another variation, "I slept it out", meaning that I slept later than intended (overslept). Several of the first few google results for this phrase are from Irish web pages, leading me to wonder if this is an Irishism.

As for the original question, I think "slept in" is common here in Ireland, but "slept late" wouldn't strike me as odd either. Unlike like happygeek I probably wouldn't use "slept in" for sleeping longer than intended - a "sleep-in" to me is much the same as a "lie-in".

"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.

My usage differs, zashibis. I use 'slept in' to mean 'I overslept - both of which I understand means to have awoken later than intended. Whereas, I use 'lie-in' to mean I slept - or even stayed in bed - longer than usual.

Like Tony0001, I too would mean"I overslept" if I said "I slept in". On the other hand, I wouldn't use the expression "lie-in".

First time I know it was used was in 1969 or so when John Lennon and Yoko Ono did their famous sleep-in. Haven't researched it (sick of wikigoogleing) but think they slept in at least twice: in Montreal, Canada and in the Amsterdam Hilton.

I would use "slept it in" and "slept it out" to mean I slept later than intended/missed the alarm clock/ am now running late. I think I use them interchangably but since I very rarely sleep it in/out I can't be sure. If I deliberately stayed in bed later than my normal time eg weekends, then that would be having a lie in, but then I would have to be awake to enjoy the lie in!
Seems to be the "it" is an Irish addtion, Alan. Agreed with your answer to the minority language thread also re Irish. I am now finding that with all the "new community/non Irish children in the school they are picking up the Gaeilge much better than the natives.
Sorry about hijacking.

I'm not surprised that "sleep in" has different meanings to different English speakers. Just looked in Merriam-Webster's and it gives both meanings, as well as a third meaning that I've never heard--"to sleep where one is employed"--and a date, 1827, which I presume reflects the first print citation.

VinnyD, we have the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, part of the University of Chicago medical complex.