wake

¹ American  

[weyk] / 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  

[weyk] / 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

Many stores carry iterations of the same styles, and in the wake of fast fashion, buying vintage clothing is the easiest way to be sure that what you’re wearing is different.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Voters weighed the nation’s security in the wake of President Trump saying he would like the U.S. to acquire Greenland.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

They kept talking daily, Mangan impatiently waiting for Timby to wake up seven hours behind him in Colorado.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

"I wake up every day praying that they've changed their minds," she said of administration officials.

From Barron's

I don’t know if we were trying not to wake Mama or trying not to wake the cancer.

From "Ida B" by Katherine Hannigan

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

A self-described “workaholic,” Cook famously wakes up at 4 a.m. to read customer and employee emails, then hits the gym and badges into Apple Park when he’s not traveling for diplomatic meetings or supply-chain audits.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026

From the minute an athlete wakes, to the moment they go to bed, they are thinking about how they can optimise their performance and recovery.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

“There is this extraordinarily false narrative that the president wakes up in the morning and calls me and says, ‘Todd, go prosecute X or Y,’” Blanche said.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026

When Mom wakes me up for evening prayers, I’m clutching an old Franklin Covey agenda, one that contains a series of arguments to prove Caliban’s depravity.

From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali

Hurts had one last chance and his desperation pass fell way short and he waked off the field in dejection.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 12, 2023

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

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

From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2019

He has waked up the sleeping giant that is the Philadelphia Orchestra.

From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2018

So I answered after I had waked from the trance-like dream.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

When he finally woke up, in an intensive care unit in Oklahoma City, about 90 miles northeast of Comanche, he learned that surgeons had removed 13 inches of his small intestine during emergency surgery.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

The New Hampshire-born, Utah-raised artist was once a former shoe factory worker from Maine whose singer-songwriter journey began when he woke up one morning to Stephen Stills’ “Treetop Flyer” on his clock radio.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

"I took some ibuprofen, shrugged it off, went to sleep. I woke up the next day absolutely exhausted, no energy, really high fever."

From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026

We woke at 4:30 a.m. to slog through fields from cold morning dew through to blazing midday heat.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026

Strong Jonn's voice woke Rowan from his dream of terror.

From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda

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

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

People in Clacton-on-Sea have woken up to the news that Nigel Farage will be returning to Westminster as their local MP.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 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

Hussain Tantawi was woken by a frantic phone call from a neighbor at 3:25 a.m. on Sunday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

The woman’s brown hair was cut in a short bob and looked mussed, as though she had just woken up, even though it was late afternoon.

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland

The 52-year-old commutes to Oia from nearby Imerovigli, where she rents an apartment with a home studio so she can spend every waking hour making bags.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

What mattered was less that the meal satisfied any established definition of breakfast than that, sometime after waking, you had allowed yourself to be fed.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026

It has become indispensable for organizing my waking hours, prioritizing critical tasks and remembering important obligations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

For the next couple of weeks, she’d couch surf until ultimately sleeping in her van, waking up early to wait tables at an oyster bar on Sunset Boulevard.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

I eased the door shut to avoid waking the others and twisted the lock.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros

Related Words

• aftermath
• wave