Also 5 sounde, sownde, 6 sownd. [f. SOUND a.]
† 1. Without harm or injury; in safety or security; safely. Obs.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5532. How he miȝt seke doun sounde in-to þe see bothom.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 652. So may ye surely & sounde to myselfe come.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 774. He gart thaim se … Sound saland on the se schippis of towr.
2. To sleep sound, to enjoy deep, unbroken or undisturbed sleep; to be in a profound sleep.
a. 1400. Octavian, 72. When y am to bedd broght, Y slepe but selden sownde.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, VII. Prol. 111. On slummyr I slaid full sad, and slepit sownd.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 42. So sound he slept, that nought mought him awake.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack, i. Among the coal-ashes where I slept … as sound, and as comfortably as ever I did since.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch, V. 224. Fulvius slept so sound after his wine, that [etc.].
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. v. Some night he begins to sleep sound.
phr. 1711. Ramsay, On Maggy Johnstoun, x. I trow I took a nap,… As sound’s a tap.
1727. Gay, New Song of New Similes, vi. But she, insensible of that, Sound as a top can sleep.
b. Sound asleep, sunk in sleep; fast asleep. Also with ellipse of asleep.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. v. 8. How sound is she a sleepe? I must needs wake her.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., i. He may be found sound asleep on his feather-bed.
1839. Dickens, Nickleby, xxiii. Asleep she did fall, sound as a church.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Sports & Adv. Scotl., vii. (1853), 81. ‘Sound as a watchman,’ [he] hears nothing.
1891. A. Gordon, Garglen, ii. 54. How can you say all this, when you were sound as a trooper?
3. In a sound manner; heartily, soundly.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. iv. 61. Let the supposed Fairies pinch him, sound, And burne him with their Tapers.
b. In various combs., as sound-judging, -thinking; sound-set, -stated, etc.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. i. I. Eden, 302. Man (having yet spirit sound-stated) Should dwel elswhere, then where he was created.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VIII. 342. The sound set man … still keepeth his way.
1817. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), IV. ii. 72. A set of quiet, unpretending, but sound-judging country gentlemen.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, xii. Laws which certain profound and sound-judging philosophers have laid down.
1873. Ld. Dufferin, in A. Lyall, Life (1905), I. vii. 227. My real sympathies were … with the sound-thinking portion of the nation.
