wake

¹ American  

[wayk] / weɪk /

verb (used without object)

• wakes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• waked,
  past participle,  past
• woke,
  past
• woken,
  past participle
• waking
  present participle

1. to become roused from sleep; awake; awaken; waken (often followed byup ).

   Antonyms:

   sleep

2. to become roused from a tranquil or inactive state; awaken; waken.

   to wake from one's daydreams.

3. to become cognizant or aware of something; awaken; waken.

   to wake to the true situation.

4. to be or continue to be awake.

   Whether I wake or sleep, I think of you.

5. to remain awake for some purpose, duty, etc..

   I will wake until you return.

6. to hold a wake over a corpse.

7. to keep watch or vigil.

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verb (used with object)

• wakes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• waked,
  past participle,  past
• woke,
  past
• woken,
  past participle
• waking
  present participle

1. to rouse from sleep; awake; awaken; waken (often followed byup ).

   Don't wake me for breakfast. Wake me up at six o'clock.

   Synonyms:

   arouse

2. to rouse from lethargy, apathy, ignorance, etc. (often followed byup ).

   The tragedy woke us up to the need for safety precautions.

   Synonyms:

   provoke, kindle, animate, activate, stimulate

3. to hold a wake for or over (a dead person).

4. to keep watch or vigil over.

noun

1. a watching, or a watch kept, especially for some solemn or ceremonial purpose.

2. a watch or vigil by the body of a dead person before burial, sometimes accompanied by feasting or merrymaking.

3. a local annual festival in England, formerly held in honor of the patron saint or on the anniversary of the dedication of a church but now usually having little or no religious significance.

4. the state of being awake.

   between sleep and wake.

wake ² American  

[wayk] / weɪk /

noun

1. the track of waves left by a ship or other object moving through the water.

   The wake of the boat glowed in the darkness.

2. the path or course of anything that has passed or preceded.

   The tornado left ruin in its wake.

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idioms

1. in the wake of,

   1. as a result of.

      An investigation followed in the wake of the scandal.

   2. succeeding; following.

      in the wake of the pioneers.

wake ¹ British  

/ weɪk /

verb

1. (often foll by up) to rouse or become roused from sleep

2. (often foll by up) to rouse or become roused from inactivity

3. (intr; often foll by to or up to) to become conscious or aware

   at last he woke to the situation

4. (intr) to be or remain awake

5. (tr) to arouse (feelings etc)

6. dialect to hold a wake over (a corpse)

7. archaic to keep watch over

8. informal to face up to reality, especially in an unpleasant situation

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noun

1. a watch or vigil held over the body of a dead person during the night before burial

2. (in Ireland) festivities held after a funeral

3. the patronal or dedication festival of English parish churches

4. a solemn or ceremonial vigil

5. (usually plural) an annual holiday in any of various towns in northern England, when the local factory or factories close, usually for a week or two weeks

6. rare the state of being awake

wake ² British  

/ weɪk /

noun

1. the waves or track left by a vessel or other object moving through water

2. the track or path left by anything that has passed

   wrecked houses in the wake of the hurricane

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wake Cultural  

1. A funeral celebration, common in Ireland, at which the participants stay awake all night keeping watch over the body of the dead person before burial. A wake traditionally involves a good deal of feasting and drinking.

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wake More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing wake

• in the wake of
• to wake the dead

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Usage

Where there is an object and the sense is the literal one wake ( up ) and waken are the commonest forms: I wakened him; I woke him ( up ). Both verbs are also commonly used without an object: I woke up . Awake and awaken are preferred to other forms of wake where the sense is a figurative one: he awoke to the danger

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• waker
  noun
• half-waking
  adjective
• unwaked
  adjective
• unwaking
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• waking
  present
• waked
  past
• woken
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• wake
  simple
• wakes
  simple
• have waked
  perfect
• have woken
  perfect
• has waked
  perfect
• has woken
  perfect
• am waking
  progressive
• are waking
  progressive
• is waking
  progressive
• have been waking
  perfect progressive
• has been waking
  perfect progressive

Past

• waked
  simple
• woke
  simple
• had waked
  perfect
• had woken
  perfect
• was waking
  progressive
• were waking
  progressive
• had been waking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will wake
  simple
• will have waked
  perfect
• will have woken
  perfect
• will be waking
  progressive
• will have been waking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of wake¹

First recorded before 900; (verb) in sense “to become awake” continuing Middle English waken, Old English wacan ; in sense “to be awake” continuing Middle English waken, Old English wacian (cognate with Old Frisian wakia, Old Saxon wakōn, Old Norse vaka, Gothic wakan ); in sense “to rouse from sleep” continuing Middle English waken, replacing Middle English wecchen, Old English weccan; (noun) Middle English: “state of wakefulness, vigil,” probably continuing unattested Old English wacu (found in nihtwacu “night-watch”); all ultimately from unattested Germanic wak- “be lively”; akin to watch, vegetate; cf. waken

Origin of wake²

First recorded in 1540–50; from Middle Low German, Dutch wake, or Old Norse vǫk, vaka “opening or hole in the ice”

Explanation

In the wake, or aftermath, of a death, it's traditional in many cultures to hold a wake, a vigil for the dead. There's a third meaning of wake, too, you know: it's the waves that a boat leaves behind as it slices through the water. And that's not all... Wake has three meanings as a noun, and, yes, just about as many meanings as a verb! So get set. To wake is come out of sleep, a verb you'll recognize from "Wake up! You're asleep at the wheel!" You can wake feelings, as well as the people who are having them. The wake before the funeral caused Mike to wake from his depression and decide to live life to the fullest. His first act was to water ski; he eventually mastered staying upright while crossing the wake of the boat that was towing him.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wake wakes waked woke woken waking

The past is never dead, perhaps, but if it’s only sleeping, sentences like this won’t wake it up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

“Do you often wake up tired?” perfectly toned millennials with titles such as “wellness professional” ask me from my screen.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2026

‘People in the U.S. need to wake up’: As a mortgage loan officer, I rejected applications from wealthy couples.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

"God forbid we wake up the prime minister and he says, 'Wake up the entire IDF immediately, scramble the air force!'" he told Israel's right-wing Channel 14 television network.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

“Monkeys don’t stir around at night. They go to sleep. Then in the morning you’d have to be there before they wake up. That way they wouldn’t know what went on.”

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

"Studying how quark wakes bounce back and forth will give us new insights on the quark-gluon plasma's properties," Lee says.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

But it’s also because there’s a substantial part of the human population that can’t quite believe it wakes up on a planet where Sam Darnold won a Super Bowl.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

Still, though it wakes up when we get to the storming of the Bastille, economically but effectively rendered, and, later the Reign of Terror, in between it can turn into a murky, mopey slog.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

The alarm wakes you with a shock, the summer holiday is over and it's time to face that inbox full of unread emails.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

She presses her fingers to his forehead, and he wakes with a gasp.

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas

Since the Australian show — now in its third season — reached American audiences on Disney+ in early 2020, parents have waked in the night with the melodica-driven theme song on hyperloop in their heads.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2023

When he had more time to linger on the what-ifs, whether things would have been different had he just waked up earlier that Saturday and visited her.

From Seattle Times ● May 28, 2022

Toto Bergamo Rossi, director of the Venetian Heritage Foundation, who lives in a palace not far from the train station, said the hordes had rudely waked him that morning.

From New York Times ● Jun. 3, 2020

Every morning, before most of the surrounding world has waked up, P.J.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2019

When I waked at Night, I seen that he does not sleep, but sits staring at the Walls.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

A Times reporter in Long Beach said it woke up them up and terrified their pet cat, which hid under a dining room table.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

"A few days ago, they ran a compressor test with a big bang... even the children who were asleep woke up in fear," said Ali, a retired paper mill worker.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

Late one night, their dad woke them up, told them to pack their bags as quickly as possible and fled with them to Reno, leaving their pet pit bull behind.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Data from their smartwatches also indicated that they woke up fewer times during the night.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

I had to suspend my wonder as Seth’s cough woke Yao and he began barking orders for us to get up and start work.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo

Holly said her boyfriend had been sleeping as the fire took hold, and was woken by a stranger ringing the doorbell.

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

Fed officials have now woken up to the inflationary part of the AI story.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

For more than four decades, Yuk Wong has woken up every day at 4 a.m. and cooked bacon from before the sun rises until closing time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

Called “Situational Awareness,” the essay proclaimed that AI would soon become more powerful than humans and that most of the world hadn’t woken up to this reality.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026

Fred fell off the rock and Selkie honked crossly at being woken from her nap.

From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr

Participants wore a headband that recorded brain waves, used a smartwatch to monitor sleep, and filled out a questionnaire each morning about how they had slept and how they felt upon waking.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

"He caught up quickly because he devoted his whole life to it, for every waking hour and then some."

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

Maybe the answer is waking up and realizing you don’t have to hit the drive-thru for breakfast.

From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026

Signs of sleep apnoea, a disorder that causes a person's breathing to repeatedly stop and start during sleep, include pauses in breathing, choking at night, waking frequently, and suffering from morning headaches.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

The tiny electric stings felt like a sleeping limb waking up.

From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young

Related Words

• aftermath
• wave