I. ˈwāk verb
( waked ˈwākt ; or woke ˈwōk ; waked or wok·en ˈwōkən ; or woke ; waking ; wakes )
Etymology: Middle English waken (past wok, wook, past participle waken ), from Old English wacan to wake, be born (past wōc, past participle wacen ) and Middle English waken, wakien (past & past participle waked ), from Old English wacian to watch, be awake (past wacode, past participle wacod ); akin to Old English wæccan to watch, be awake, Old High German wahhēn, wahhōn, Old Norse vaka, Gothic wakan; akin to Old English weccan to rouse, stir, waken, Old High German wecchan, Old Norse vekja, Gothic us wakjan to rouse, waken, Latin vegēre to rouse, excite, be active, Sanskrit vāja strength, speed, vigor, contest, prize
intransitive verb
1.
a. : to be or continue awake : refrain from sleep
usually asleep, and in our waking hours always held back — Sir Winston Churchill
b. obsolete : to work all night : stay awake engaged in activity
c. : to remain awake on watch or guard especially over a sick person or a corpse
d. obsolete : to stay up late in revelry
the king doth wake tonight, and takes his rouse — Shakespeare
2.
a. : to become roused from sleep : stop sleeping : awake
soon woke refreshed — Eudora Welty
ruffled his hair as if he had just woken — Audrey Barker
— often used with up
I waked up at 3 o'clock in the morning — Joyce Cary
the boy had waked from dreams — Ralph Robin
b. : to become stirred from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state
woke out of his trance — O.S.J.Gogarty
the old feelings had woken — Rumer Godden
— often used with up
on national holidays … the little place wakes up — Tom Marvel
c. : to enter into a new state of awareness or consciousness : become free from misconception or illusion
has woken up and … rescinded its previous resolution — Cape Town (South Africa) Monitor
— usually used with to
social scientists have waked to the story's importance — Roger Burlingame
woke up to the fact that this was a delusion — Atlantic
transitive verb
1. : to stand watch over (as a dead body) : hold a wake over
will be waked at the church rectory — Springfield (Massachusetts) Union
waked the departed term most gloriously over eggs, pie, and cider — W.G.Hammond
2.
a. : to rouse from sleep : awaken
was woken by raucous bird cries — A.H.Barton
— often used with up
a young physicist woke up his wife — Laura Fermi
is partly waked up … by the crying of one of his children — Edmund Wilson
snakes are woken up by heat — T.H.White b. 1906
b. : to bring to motion, action, or life : stir , excite
an offense against himself which woke his terrible wrath — H.E.Scudder
his tears woken and then held back — H.E.Bates
woke up latent possibilities — Norman Douglas
c. : to arouse conciousness or interest in : alert
what wakes him up is the horrified refusal of his future wife to be kissed — Anthony Quinton
— usually used with to
woke the publishers to the fact that there was an enormous … audience — Harrison Smith
d.
(1) archaic : to break the silence of
no wind waked the wood — C.K.D.Patmore
(2) : to cause (an echo) to resound
his great laugh woke distant echoes in the forest — Irving Bacheller
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from waken, wakien to wake
1. : the state of being awake : a condition of sleeplessness
making such difference twixt wake and sleep — Shakespeare
2.
[translation of Medieval Latin vigilia; from the early church custom of preceding certain festivals by services lasting through the night]
a.
(1) : an annual English parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the church's patron saint either on the saint's day or on a selected Sunday
(2) : a vigil of fasting and prayer formerly held on the night prior to a wake or other feast day
b. : a period of festivities usually including a fair or market originally connected with the wake of an English parish church — usually used in plural but sing. or plural in constr.
fairs, markets, folk dancing and all kinds of amusements characterize Wakes Week celebration — Dorothy G. Spicer
c. Britain : an annual holiday or vacation from work — usually used in plural but sing. or plural in constr.
the wakes … had closed the workshops — Manchester Examiner
3.
a. : a watch held over the body of a dead person prior to burial and sometimes accompanied by festivity
when the boys gather to hold a wake … they'll have to bring their own drinking — F.B.Gipson
mourn their dead with the primitive wails of a Corsican wake — Marguerite Yourcenar
b. : a gathering or party marking a change of circumstance likened to a wake
the bridal wake that the villagers gave — Christian Science Monitor
a few old friends … hold a brief wake over old days — J.R.Allan
III. adjective
Etymology: Middle English, by shortening
: awake
whose struggle is to keep the world of wake men from their sleep world — E.J.Fitzgerald
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse vök hole, opening in the ice, Swedish vak, Danish vaage; akin to Middle Dutch wak damp, wet — more at humor
1. : the track left by a ship or other body in the water
the wake of a ship showing green and white — Stewart Beach
beaver wakes glistening under the moonlight — R.M.Ormes
broadly : a turbulent condition of the air or other fluid left behind by a body moving through it
the wake of an airplane wing
2. : the path of light left or apparently left by a moving luminous body or its reflection
staring out over the water at the figure receding beyond the moon's wake — R.O.Bowen
3. : the visible or otherwise detectable trace of a body moving on land
a big red truck passes … and a billowing wake of dust floats toward the house — Helen Upshaw
•
- in the wake of