awaken

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English awakenen or awaknen, from Old English awæcnan or awæcnian, from a- plus wæcnan or wæcnian.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /əˈweɪkən/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪkən

Verb[edit]

awaken (third-person singular simple present awakens, present participle awakening, simple past and past participle awakened) (but see usage notes)

  1. (transitive) To cause to become awake.
    She awakened him by ringing the bell.
  2. (intransitive) To stop sleeping; awake.
    Each morning he awakens with a smile on his face.
  3. (transitive, figurative) To bring into action (something previously dormant); to stimulate.
    Awaken your entrepreneurial spirit!
    We hope to awaken your interest in our programme.
  4. (theology) To call to a sense of sin.
  5. (rare) past participle of awake
    • 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...
  6. (transitive) To cause to become aware.

Usage notes[edit]

This verb, for many speakers, has been essentially conflated with the verb awake, and has adopted parts of awake’s conjugation. awaken remains the bare form (and also in awakens and awakening), but its simple past and past participle are replaced by those of awake: awoke and awoken, respectively.

For many others, awaken has simply supplanted awake, without adopting conjugational elements from awake.

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

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