Origin of sleeping partner

First recorded in 1775–85

Example sentences from the Web for sleeping partner

  • Instead, she had cast about among cousins and so forth until she had found one who knew the sleeping-partner of the firm.

    Gray youth |Oliver Onions
  • I am quite content to be a sleeping-partner in the house of Dunbar, Dunbar, and Balderby.

    Henry Dunbar |M. E. Braddon

British Dictionary definitions for sleeping partner

sleeping partner

noun

a partner in a business who does not play an active role, esp one who supplies capital Also: silent partner