awake

[uh-weyk]

verb (used with or without object)

awoke, awaked, awoke, awaked, awoken, awaking. 

1. to wake up; rouse from sleep.

   I awoke at six with a feeling of dread.

2. to rouse to action; become active.

   His flagging interest awoke.

3. to come or bring to an awareness; become cognizant (often followed byto ).

   She awoke to the realities of life.

adjective

1. waking; not sleeping.

2. vigilant; alert.

   They were awake to the danger.

awake

/ əˈweɪk /

verb

1. to emerge or rouse from sleep; wake

2. to become or cause to become alert

3. (usually foll by to) to become or make aware (of)

   to awake to reality

4. Also: awaken. (tr) to arouse (feelings, etc) or cause to remember (memories, etc)

adjective

1. not sleeping

2. (sometimes foll by to) lively or alert

Other Word Forms

• awakeable adjective
• half-awake adjective
• reawake verb
• unawake adjective
• unawakeable adjective
• unawaked adjective
• unawaking adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of awake¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English awaken, Old English awacen, past participle of awæcnan; a ¹, waken

Word History and Origins

Origin of awake¹

Old English awacian, awacan; see _wake ¹

Example Sentences

Dazed survivors of a pair of major earthquakes in the southern Philippines awoke on Saturday to scenes of devastation, after hundreds of aftershocks rocked the region overnight.

Read more on Barron's

For the duration of the procedure the client is wide awake, having had low levels of local anaesthetic injected into the skin and the deeper tissue beneath.

Read more on BBC

One writer, on deadline in New Zealand, was at least awake enough to notice the obvious calculation by Tilly’s creators.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But in the middle of the night her mother awoke to a series of "disturbing" messages from her daughter, who had left their home, "which gave her an immediate cause for concern".

Read more on BBC

Some awoke to a flood of text messages and calls and had few options that would get them on the ground in the U.S. ahead of the deadline.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• alive 
• attentive 
• aware 
• cognizant 
• vigilant