I. wake 1 S2 W3 /weɪk/ BrE AmE ( also wake up ) verb ( past tense woke /wəʊk $ woʊk/, past participle woken /ˈwəʊkən $ ˈwoʊ-/) [intransitive and transitive]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: wacan 'to wake up' and wacian 'to be awake' ]
to stop sleeping, or to make someone stop sleeping:
When she woke, the sun was streaming through the windows.
Try not to wake the baby.
wake to
Nancy woke to the sound of birds outside her window (=she heard birds singing when she woke) .
wake up phrasal verb
1 . to stop sleeping, or to make someone stop sleeping:
James usually wakes up early.
wake somebody ↔ up
I’ll wake you up when it’s time to leave.
2 . to start to listen or pay attention to something:
Wake up (=give me your attention) at the back there!
3 . wake up and smell the coffee American English spoken used to tell someone to recognize the truth or reality of a situation
wake up to something phrasal verb
to start to realize and understand a danger, an idea etc:
It’s time you woke up to the fact that it’s a tough world.
II. wake 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Sense 1-2,4: Date: 1400-1500 ; Origin: Perhaps from Dutch wak or Middle Low German wake , from Old Norse vok 'hole in the ice, especially as made by a boat' ]
[ Sense 3: Date: 1400-1500 ; Origin: ⇨ ↑ wake 1 ]
1 . in the wake of something if something, especially something bad, happens in the wake of an event, it happens afterwards and usually as a result of it:
Famine followed in the wake of the drought.
2 . in sb’s/sth’s wake behind or after someone or something:
The car left clouds of dust in its wake.
3 . the time before or after a funeral when friends and relatives meet to remember the dead person
4 . [usually singular] the track made behind a boat as it moves through the water