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.
The Eaton fire, which killed 19 people in neighboring Altadena last year, served as a wake-up call to city leaders, Augustin said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
"There are some wake-up calls... pushing us to move more to renewable energy," Anura Karunathilaka said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
"I reckon it's a wake-up call, and the girls will think so too. We fought our way back, so we will take that away with things to work on."
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026
Vinegar can be more like a gentle wake-up than a glass of water to the face.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
I even missed those 5:40 a.m. wake-up calls.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
