From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsiestasi‧es‧ta /siˈestə/ noun [countable] DLSLEEPa short sleep in the afternoon, especially in warm countriestake/have a siesta The stores all close after lunch when everyone takes a siesta.
Examples from the Corpus
siesta• Paquita worked but came home for lunch and a siesta.• Follow the locals, when abroad, and have a siesta indoors.• At one, in the stifling heat, we took a siesta.• He was going upstairs for his siesta.• His habitual amount of sleep had been five to seven hours a night, with a half-hour siesta in the afternoon.• Mondano was as deserted as a ghost town, wrapped in the silence of its siesta.• In the second half, the Oregon defense takes a prolonged siesta, allowing the opponents to score forty-two points.take/have a siesta• Follow the locals, when abroad, and have a siesta indoors.• If I did have a siesta it was always a very short one.• Everyone pretended Clarisa was simply taking a siesta.• At one, in the stifling heat, we took a siesta.Origin siesta (1600-1700) Spanish Latin sexta (hora) “sixth hour, noon” 