I. a ‧ wake 1 S3 /əˈweɪk/ BrE AmE adjective [not before noun]
1 . not sleeping:
I hope he’s awake now.
She was still only half awake when I brought her a cup of coffee.
How do you stay awake during boring lectures?
Emma lay awake half the night, worrying.
The noise brought him wide awake (=completely awake) .
To keep themselves awake (=stop themselves from going to sleep) they sat on the floor and told each other stories.
2 . be awake to something to understand a situation and its possible effects SYN be aware of something :
Too few people are awake to the dangers of noise pollution.
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COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ stay/keep/remain awake
I was tired and it was hard to stay awake.
▪ lie awake
Kate lay awake thinking about what had happened.
▪ keep somebody awake
The noise of the airplanes kept me awake.
▪ shake somebody awake
Ben shook me awake and told me the news.
■ adverbs
▪ be wide/fully awake (=completely awake)
I'm never wide awake until I've had a cup of coffee.
▪ be half awake (=not fully awake)
Most of the people on the train were only half awake.
▪ be hardly/barely awake
George, barely awake, came stumbling down the stairs.
II. awake 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense awoke /əˈwəʊk $ əˈwoʊk/, past participle awoken /əˈwəʊkən $ əˈwoʊ-/) [intransitive and transitive]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: awacan (from wacan ) and awacian (from wacian ); ⇨ ↑ wake 1 ]
1 . formal to wake up, or to make someone wake up:
It was midday when she awoke.
We awoke to a day of brilliant sunshine.
REGISTER
In everyday English, people usually use wake up rather than awake :
▪
I woke up at 4 o'clock this morning.
2 . literary if something awakes an emotion, or if an emotion awakes, you suddenly begin to feel that emotion:
The gesture awoke an unexpected flood of tenderness towards her.
awake to something phrasal verb
to begin to realize the possible effects of a situation SYN wake up to :
Artists finally awoke to the aesthetic possibilities of photography.