wake-up
Americannoun
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an act or instance of waking up.
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an act or instance of being awakened.
I asked the hotel desk for a wake-up at 6.
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a time of awaking or being awakened.
I'll need a 5 o'clock wake-up to make the early plane.
adjective
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serving to wake one from sleep.
Tell the front desk you want a wake-up call.
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serving to arouse or alert.
a wake-up call on the problems of pollution.
noun
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informal an alert or intelligent person
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informal to be fully alert to (a person, thing, action, etc)
Etymology
Origin of wake-up
First recorded in 1835–45; noun, adj. use of verb phrase wake up
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf said at the time that the incident was "a wake-up call" for the industry.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
It was a revelation, and a wake-up call, for fellow retailers.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
"Seeing these hybrid attacks across Europe, I think these are also wake-up calls for the countries who have not been so strong... on this," she said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026
It was also a big wake-up call for families, who may not yet know the extent of the horrors children have faced on the apps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Susan B. Anthony’s first major wake-up call about the need for women’s equality came in January 1852 when the Sons of Temperance invited Anthony to a statewide meeting in Albany, New York.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
