awake

Etymology

From Middle English awaken, from Old English awacan, from a- (intensive prefix) + wacan (“wake”). Compare Saterland Frisian Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈweɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk

Adjective

awake (comparative more awake, superlative most awake) (predicative only)

1. Not asleep; conscious.

   Synonym: conscious, lucid, wide awake

   Synonym: asleep, unconscious

2. (by extension) Alert, aware.

Verb

awake (third-person singular simple present awakes, present participle awaking, simple past awoke or (rare) awaked, past participle awoken or (rare) awaked or (rare) awoke or (rare) awaken)

1. (intransitive) To become conscious after having slept.

   Synonyms: awaken, wake up

   Antonym: fall asleep

   • Salvador Dalí (1904-1989):

     Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali.

2. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter primum, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:

     Thenne she called the heremyte syre Vlfyn I am a gentylwoman that wold speke with the knyght whiche is with yow / Thenne the good man awaked Galahad / & badde hym aryse and speke with a gentylwoman that semeth hath grete nede of yow / Thenne Galahad wente to her & asked her what she wold

   • 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...

3. (transitive) to excite or to stir up something latent.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
5. (intransitive, figuratively) To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.
   • Edward Augustus Freeman (1823-1892)

     The national spirit again awoke.

   • Bible, 1 Corinthians xv. 34

     Awake to righteousness, and sin not.

References

• “awake” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “awake” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "awake" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
• awake in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• awake in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913