awake

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈweɪk/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /əˈweːk/
  • (Ottawa Valley) IPA^(key): ,

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk

Etymology 1

From Middle English awake, a shortened form of awaken (“awakened, awake”), past participle of Middle English awaken (“to awaken”). See verb below. Compare Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).

Adjective

awake (not comparable) (predicative only)

1. Not asleep; conscious.

   Synonyms: conscious, lucid, wide awake; see also Thesaurus:awake

   Antonyms: asleep, unconscious; see also Thesaurus:asleep

   • 2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 86:

     By quarter to six all this had me so awake and agitated that even the Balinese wind chimes that I hung up in the garden to relax me began to sound like Big Ben.

2. (figurative, by extension) Alert, aware.

   Synonyms: wary, woke; see also Thesaurus:vigilant

   Antonyms: heedless, oblivious

   They were awake to the possibility of a decline in sales.

   • 1845, The Sportsman's Magazine of Life in London and the Country, page 355:

     The Baker was a two-handed hitter, and seemed perfectly awake to the business before him.

   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1837, →OCLC:

     ‘Sammy,’ whispered Mr. Weller, looking cautiously round; ‘ […] Me and a cab’net-maker has dewised a plan for gettin’ him out. A pianner, Samivel—a pianner!’ […]
     ‘And wot ‘ud be the good o’ that?’ said Sam.
     ‘Let him send to my friend, the cabinet-maker, to fetch it back, Sammy,’ replied Mr. Weller. ‘Are you avake, now?’
     ‘No,’ rejoined Sam.
     ‘There ain’t no vurks in it,’ whispered his father. ‘It ‘ull hold him easy, vith his hat and shoes on, and breathe through the legs, vich his holler. […]

   • 1965 June, Martin Luther King, Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution‎:

     And so we see in our own world a revolution of rising expectations. The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English awaken and awakien, from Old English āwacan and āwacian, equivalent to a- +‎ wake.

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.
   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:

     Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night,
     Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
     And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
     The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.

   Synonyms: awaken, wake up; see also Thesaurus:wake

   Antonyms: fall asleep; see also Thesaurus:fall asleep

2. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.

   Synonyms: bring round, cry, wake up; see also Thesaurus:awaken

   Antonym: put to sleep

   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 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 make aware of something.
4. (transitive) To excite or to stir up something latent.
5. (transitive, figurative) To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
6. (intransitive, figurative) To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.
   • 1867-1879, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England

     The national spirit again awoke.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:34:

     Awake to righteousness, and sin not.

Usage notes

For many speakers, this verb is commonly conflated with awaken (and, in such cases, lends some conjugational elements to it). See the usage notes at awaken for more details.

Derived terms

• awaker

Translations

See also

• awake to
• awaken
• wake
• wake up
• woke

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 , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “awake”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.