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wake

 - 10 dictionary results

wake

1  [weyk] verb, waked or woke, waked or wok⋅en, wak⋅ing, noun
Use wake in a Sentence
–verb (used without object)
1. to become roused from sleep; awake; awaken; waken (often fol. by up).
2. to become roused from a tranquil or inactive state; awaken; waken: to wake from one's daydreams.
3. to become cognizant or aware of something; awaken; waken: to wake to the true situation.
4. to be or continue to be awake: Whether I wake or sleep, I think of you.
5. to remain awake for some purpose, duty, etc.: I will wake until you return.
6. to hold a wake over a corpse.
7. to keep watch or vigil.
–verb (used with object)
8. to rouse from sleep; awake; awaken; waken (often fol. by up): Don't wake me for breakfast. Wake me up at six o'clock.
9. to rouse from lethargy, apathy, ignorance, etc. (often fol. by up): The tragedy woke us up to the need for safety precautions.
10. to hold a wake for or over (a dead person).
11. to keep watch or vigil over.
–noun
12. a watching, or a watch kept, esp. for some solemn or ceremonial purpose.
13. a watch or vigil by the body of a dead person before burial, sometimes accompanied by feasting or merrymaking.
14. a local annual festival in England, formerly held in honor of the patron saint or on the anniversary of the dedication of a church but now usually having little or no religious significance.
15. the state of being awake: between sleep and wake.
Origin:
bef. 900; (v.) in sense “to become awake” continuing ME waken, OE *wacan (found only in past tense wōc and the compounds onwacan, āwacan to become awake; see awake (v.)); in sense “to be awake” continuing ME waken, OE wacian (c. OFris wakia, OS wakōn, ON vaka, Goth wakan); in sense “to rouse from sleep” continuing ME waken, r. ME wecchen, OE weccan, prob. altered by assoc. with the other senses and with the k of ON vaka; (n.) ME: state of wakefulness, vigil (late ME: vigil over a dead body), prob. continuing OE *wacu (found only in nihtwacu night-watch); all ult. < Gmc *wak- be lively; akin to watch, vegetable, vigil

Related forms:
waker, noun

Synonyms:
8. arouse. 9. stimulate, activate, animate, kindle, provoke.

Antonyms:
1. sleep.

wake

2  [weyk]
–noun
1. the track of waves left by a ship or other object moving through the water: The wake of the boat glowed in the darkness.
2. the path or course of anything that has passed or preceded: The tornado left ruin in its wake.
—Idiom
3. in the wake of,
a. as a result of: An investigation followed in the wake of the scandal.
b. succeeding; following: in the wake of the pioneers.
Origin:
1540–50; < MLG, D wake, or ON vǫk hole in the ice
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To wake
wake 1   (wāk)   
v.   woke (wōk) or waked (wākt), waked or wok·en (wō'kən), wak·ing, wakes

v.   intr.

    1. To cease to sleep; become awake: overslept and woke late.

    2. To stay awake: Bears wake for spring, summer, and fall and hibernate for the winter.

    3. To be brought into a state of awareness or alertness: suddenly woke to the danger we were in.

  2. To keep watch or guard, especially over a corpse.

v.   tr.

  1. To rouse from sleep; awaken.

  2. To stir, as from a dormant or inactive condition; rouse: wake old animosities.

  3. To make aware of; alert: The shocking revelations finally woke me to the facts of the matter.

    1. To keep a vigil over.

    2. To hold a wake over.

n.  

  1. A watch; a vigil.

  2. A watch over the body of a deceased person before burial, sometimes accompanied by festivity. Also called regionally viewing.

  3. wakes (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Chiefly British

    1. A parish festival held annually, often in honor of a patron saint.

    2. An annual vacation.


[Middle English wakien, waken, from Old English wacan, to wake up and wacian, to be awake, keep watch; see weg- in Indo-European roots.]
wak'er n.
Usage Note: The pairs wake, waken and awake, awaken have formed a bewildering array since the Middle English period. All four words have similar meanings, though there are some differences in use. Only wake is used in the sense "to be awake," as in expressions like waking (not wakening) and sleeping, every waking hour. Wake is also more common than waken when used together with up, and awake and awaken never occur in this context: She woke up (rarely wakened up; never awakened up or awoke up). Some writers have suggested that waken should be used only transitively (as in The alarm wakened him) and awaken only intransitively (as in He awakened at dawn), but there is ample literary precedent for usages such as He wakened early and They did not awaken her. In figurative senses awake and awaken are more prevalent: With the governor's defeat the party awoke to the strength of the opposition to its position on abortion. The scent of the gardenias awakened my memory of his unexpected appearance that afternoon years ago.

Regional American dialects vary in the way that certain verbs form their principal parts. Northern dialects seem to favor forms that change the internal vowel in the verb—hence dove for the past tense of dive, and woke for wake: They woke up with a start. Southern dialects, on the other hand, tend to prefer forms that add an -ed to form the past tense and the past participle of these same verbs: The children dived into the swimming hole. The baby waked up early.
wake 2   (wāk)   
n.  

  1. The visible track of turbulence left by something moving through water: the wake of a ship.

  2. A track, course, or condition left behind something that has passed: The war left destruction and famine in its wake.


[Possibly from Middle Low German, hole in the ice, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse vök.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

wake

A funeral celebration, common in Ireland, at which the participants stay awake all night keeping watch over the body of the dead person before burial. A wake traditionally involves a good deal of feasting and drinking.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

wake  (v.)
"to become awake," O.E. wacan "to become awake," also from wacian "to be or remain awake," both from P.Gmc. *waken (cf. O.S. wakon, O.N. vaka, Dan. vaage, O.Fris. waka, Du. waken, O.H.G. wahhen, Ger. wachen "to be awake," Goth. wakan "to watch"), from PIE base *weg- "to be strong, be lively" (cf. Skt. vajah "force, swiftness, race, prize," vajayati "drives on;" L. vegere, vigere "to be live, be active, quicken," vigil "awake, wakeful," vigor "liveliness, activity"). Causative sense "to rouse from sleep" is attested from c.1300. Phrase wake-up call is attested from 1976, originally a call one received from the hotel desk in the morning.

wake  (n.2)
"state of wakefulness," O.E. -wacu (as in nihtwacu "night watch"), related to watch; and partly from O.N. vaka "vigil, eve before a feast," related to vaka "be awake" (cf. O.H.G. wahta "watch, vigil," M.Du. wachten "to watch, guard;" see wake (v.)). Meaning "a sitting up at night with a corpse" is attested from 1412 (the verb in this sense is recorded from c.1250). The custom largely survived as an Irish activity. Wakeman (c.1200), which survives as a surname, was M.E. for "watchman."

wake  (n.1)
"track left by a moving ship," 1547, perhaps from M.L.G. or M.Du. wake "hole in the ice," from O.N. vok, vaka "hole in the ice," from P.Gmc. *wakwo. The sense perhaps evolved via "track made by a vessel through ice." Perhaps the Eng. word is directly from Scand. Fig. phrase in the wake of "following close behind" is recorded from 1806.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

wake

In addition to the idioms beginning with wake, also see in the wake of; to wake the dead.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Encyclopedia

wake

watch or vigil held over the body of a dead person before burial and sometimes accompanied by festivity; also, in England, a vigil kept in commemoration of the dedication of the parish church. The latter type of wake consisted of an all-night service of prayer and meditation in the church. These services, officially termed Vigiliae by the church, appear to have existed from the earliest days of Anglo-Saxon Christianity. Each parish kept the morrow of its vigil as a holiday. Wakes soon degenerated into fairs; people from neighbouring parishes journeyed over to join in the merrymaking, and the revelry and drunkenness became a scandal. The days usually chosen for church dedications being Sundays and saints' days, the abuse seemed all the more scandalous. In 1445 Henry VI attempted to suppress markets and fairs on Sundays and holy days

Learn more about wake with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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