Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A character in fairy tales and folklore who makes children go to sleep by sprinkling sand in their eyes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fabulous person who is supposed to make children sleepy: probably so called in allusion to the rubbing of their eyes when sleepy, as if to rub out particles of sand.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A mythical person who makes children sleepy, so that they rub their eyes as if there were sand in them.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A legendary figure who is said to bring good sleep and dreams by placing sand in the eyes.
  • noun Used as a symbol of the passage of time to death.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an elf in fairy stories who sprinkles sand in children's eyes to make them sleepy

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sand +‎ -man

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Examples

  • (Soundbite of song, "In Dreams") Mr. ORBISON: (Singing) A candy-colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to my room every night just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper, go to sleep, everything is all right.

    Roy Orbison: A Great Voice, A Lonely Sound 2010

  • (Soundbite of song, "In Dreams") Mr. ORBISON: (Singing) A candy-colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to my room every night just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper, go to sleep, everything is all right.

    Roy Orbison: A Great Voice, A Lonely Sound 2010

  • (Soundbite of song, "In Dreams") Mr. ORBISON: (Singing) A candy-colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to my room every night just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper, go to sleep, everything is all right.

    Roy Orbison: A Great Voice, A Lonely Sound 2010

  • February 27, 2008 at 8:36 am a candy-colored clown they call the sandman tiptoes to my room every night just to sprinkle stardust and to whisper go to sleep, everything is all right

    Tunite - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • “In Dreams” – any song that plays a major part in Blue Velvet AND starts, “A candy-colored clown they call the sandman…”.

    What’s your favorite | clusterflock 2008

  • A candy colored clown they call the sandman .... in '

    Knowledge is Power 2010

  • | Reply the 3 friends I saw this with said I was stupid for thinking this, but there was not enough cool spiderman flying around and kicking ass parts to me, and I noticed (this may just be me) but his voice when he was in battles was more annoying (ex. as the sandman is robbing the van, he gets slammed against a car and yells “oww!” in an annoying tone), my friends also said I was too critical on that.

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Attn: Nerdtacular Attendees! 2007

  • “In Dreams” – any song that plays a major part in Blue Velvet AND starts, “A candy-colored clown they call the sandman …”.

    What’s your favorite | clusterflock 2008

  • (Click on the photo to enlarge ... and please excuse the marchand de sable or "sandman" in Sam The Man's eyes, but you'll allow him the excuse of complete exhaustion, won't you?!) crevé (e) (kruh-vay) adjective

    Braise The Dog 2009

  • (Click on the photo to enlarge ... and please excuse the marchand de sable or "sandman" in Sam The Man's eyes, but you'll allow him the excuse of complete exhaustion, won't you?!) crevé (e) (kruh-vay) adjective

    creve - French Word-A-Day 2009

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