awake

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /əˈweɪk/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪk

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English awake, a shortened form of awaken (“awakened, awake”), past participle of Middle English awaken (“to awaken”). See verb below. Compare Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).

Adjective[edit]

awake (comparative more awake, superlative most awake) (predicative only)

  1. Not asleep; conscious.
    • 2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 86:
      By quarter to six all this had me so awake and agitated that even the Balinese wind chimes that I hung up in the garden to relax me began to sound like Big Ben.
    Synonyms: conscious, lucid, wide awake; see also Thesaurus:awake
    Antonyms: asleep, unconscious; see also Thesaurus:asleep
  2. (figuratively, by extension) Alert, aware.
    Synonyms: wary, woke; see also Thesaurus:vigilant
    Antonyms: heedless, oblivious
    They were awake to the possibility of a decline in sales.
    • 1965 June, Martin Luther King, Jr., "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution"[1]:
      And so we see in our own world a revolution of rising expectations. The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English awaken and awakien, from Old English āwacan and āwacian, equivalent to a- +‎ wake.

Verb[edit]

awake (third-person singular simple present awakes, present participle awaking, simple past awoke or (rare) awaked, past participle awoken or (rare) awaked or (rare) awoke or (rare) awaken)

  1. (intransitive) To become conscious after having slept.
    Synonyms: awaken, wake up; see also Thesaurus:wake
    Antonyms: fall asleep; see also Thesaurus:fall asleep
  2. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
    Synonyms: bring round, cry, wake up; see also Thesaurus:awaken
    Antonym: put to sleep
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “primum”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII (in Middle English):
      Thenne she called the heremyte syre Vlfyn I am a gentylwoman that wold speke with the knyght whiche is with yow / Thenne the good man awaked Galahad / & badde hym aryse and speke with a gentylwoman that semeth hath grete nede of yow / Thenne Galahad wente to her & asked her what she wold
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
    • 1665 Robert Hooke, Micrographia
      [This ant] I ſuffered to lye above an hour in the Spirit; and after I had taken it out, and put its body and legs into a natural poſture, remained moveleſs about an hour; but then , upon a ſudden, as if it had been awaken out of a drunken ſleep, it ſuddenly reviv'd and ran away...
  3. (transitive) to excite or to stir up something latent.
  4. (transitive, figuratively) To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
  5. (intransitive, figuratively) To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.
Derived terms[edit]
Usage notes[edit]

For many speakers, this verb is commonly conflated with awaken (and, in such cases, lends some conjugational elements to it). See the usage notes at awaken for more details.

Translations[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also[edit]

References[edit]

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