Definition

1. Verb:
   • To sleep in a convenient or makeshift place, especially one that is not a proper bed: This informal, chiefly British term describes sleeping temporarily in an available but often uncomfortable or unconventional location, such as on a floor, in a cheap lodging house, or in any place one can "crash" for the night.

Usage and Examples

• Verb:
  • We had no money for a hotel, so we had to doss on the floor at a friend's flat.
  • He often dosses down in the park when the shelters are full.
  • "You can doss here for the night if you don't mind the sofa," he offered.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• "doss down": A common phrasal verb meaning to settle down to sleep in a temporary or improvised place.
  • After the long journey, we just dossed down in the living room.
• The word carries connotations of impermanence, lack of comfort, and often poverty or necessity. It is informal slang.

Variants and Related Words

• Dosser (noun): A person who sleeps rough or lives by dossing.
  • The charity provides meals for dossers and the homeless.
• Doss-house (noun): A very cheap, run-down lodging house or hostel.
  • He spent a few nights in a grim doss-house near the docks.

Synonyms

• Crash (informal): To sleep, especially temporarily at someone's place.
  • Can I crash at your place tonight?
• Kip down (British informal): To sleep, especially in a makeshift bed.
• Sleep rough: To sleep outdoors without proper shelter.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Doss down: To go to sleep in an available, often uncomfortable, place.
  • We'll just have to doss down wherever we can find space.

Related Idioms

• To live on the doss: To live without a permanent home, sleeping in various temporary places.
  • After losing his job, he ended up living on the doss for a few months.

Verb

1. sleep in a convenient place
   • You can crash here, though it's not very comfortable