From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdozedoze /dəʊz $ doʊz/ verb [intransitive] SLEEPto sleep lightly for a short time Grandad was dozing in his chair.► see thesaurus at sleep —doze noun [singular] → doze off→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
doze• While Celestine paid avid attention, Paula started to doze.• He left his mother dozing by the file.• With eel in her hand, the baby at her feet, Sethe dozed, dry-mouthed and sweaty.• Some people managed to sleep, but most of us just dozed fitfully.• Geoff lay dozing gently in a sunlounger.• From here she could see old Mrs Fermoyle dozing in her huge crib.• Kevin often dozes in his chair instead of going to lunch.• As we dozed off, we heard the sound of approaching footsteps and voices, which jerked us quickly back to life.• All this is done while the philosopher stares abstractedly out of the window and the interviewer dozes off.• Lying on the bed she had dozed rather than slept.Origin doze (1600-1700) From a Scandinavian language; related to Old Norse dúsa “to sleep lightly” 