/ weɪk; NAmE / verb , noun
■ verb ( woke / wəʊk; NAmE / woken / ˈwəʊkən; NAmE /)
1.
[usually + adv. / prep. ] wake (sb) (up) to stop sleeping; to make sb stop sleeping :
[ v ]
What time do you usually wake up in the morning?
I always wake early in the summer.
Wake up! It's eight o'clock.
( formal )
They woke to a clear blue sky.
( formal )
She had just woken from a deep sleep.
[ v to inf ]
He woke up to find himself alone in the house.
[ vn ]
Try not to wake the baby up.
I was woken by the sound of someone moving around.
➡ note at awake
2.
[ vn ] ( literary or formal ) to make sb remember sth or feel sth again :
The incident woke memories of his past sufferings.
•
IDIOMS
- wake up and smell the coffee
•
PHRASAL VERBS
- wake up
- wake sb up
- wake up to sth
■ noun
1.
an occasion before or after a funeral when people gather to remember the dead person, traditionally held the night before the funeral to watch over the body before it is buried
2.
the track that a boat or ship leaves behind on the surface of the water
•
IDIOMS
- in the wake of sb/sth
••
WORD ORIGIN
verb and noun sense 1 Old English (recorded only in the past tense wōc ), also partly from the weak verb wacian remain awake, hold a vigil , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch waken and German wachen ; compare with watch .
noun sense 2 late 15th cent. (denoting a track made by a person or thing): probably via Middle Low German from Old Norse vo̧k , vaka hole or opening in ice.