wake

Verb

wake (third-person singular simple present wakes, present participle waking, simple past woke or waked, past participle woken or waked)

1. (intransitive) (often followed by up) To stop sleeping.

   I woke up at four o'clock this morning.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     How long I slept I cannot tell, for I had nothing to guide me to the time, but woke at length, and found myself still in darkness.

2. (transitive) (often followed by up) To make somebody stop sleeping; to rouse from sleep.
   • Bible, Zech. iv. 1

     The angel […] came again and waked me.

   The neighbour's car alarm woke me from a strange dream.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.
   • Milton

     lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage

   • J. R. Green

     Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm.

4. (intransitive, figuratively) To be excited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
   • Milton

     Gentle airs due at their hour / To fan the earth now waked.

   • Keble

     Then wake, my soul, to high desires.

5. To lay out a body prior to burial in order to allow family and friends to pay their last respects.
6. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
7. To be or remain awake; not to sleep.
   • Bible, Eccles. xlii. 9

     The father waketh for the daughter.

   • Milton

     Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps.

   • John Locke

     I cannot think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

8. (obsolete) To be alert; to keep watch
   • Command unto the guards that they diligently wake.
9. (obsolete) To sit up late for festive purposes; to hold a night revel.
   • Shakespeare

     The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, / Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels.

Noun

wake (plural wakes)

1. (obsolete, poetic) The act of waking, or state of being awake.
   • Shakespeare

     Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep.

   • Dryden

     Singing her flatteries to my morning wake.

2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.
   • Dryden

     The warlike wakes continued all the night, / And funeral games played at new returning light.

   • Milton

     The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, / Their merry wakes and pastimes keep.

Derived terms

• wakeful
• wakeless
• wakesome

Noun

wake (plural wakes)

1. A period after a person's death before the body is buried, in some cultures accompanied by a party.
2. (historical, Church of England) An annual parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking.
   • Ld. Berners

     Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England.

   • Drayton

     And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer.

Noun

wake (plural wakes)

1. The path left behind a ship on the surface of the water.
2. The turbulent air left behind a flying aircraft.
3. (figuratively) The area behind something, typically a rapidly moving object.
   • De Quincey

     This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions.

   • Thackeray

     Several humbler persons […] formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels.

   • 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Alex Song launched a long ball forward from the back and the winger took it down nicely on his chest. He cut across the penalty area from the right and after one of the three defenders in his wake failed to make a meaningful clearance, the Oxlade-Chamberlain was able to dispatch a low left-footed finish into the far corner.

Noun

wake (plural wakes)

1. A number of vultures assembled together.

Synonyms

• dokap (western dialect)