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.
As a fitness influencer who shares content with more than 130,000 followers, Cat Jane admits she does not know what kind of comments she will wake up to each morning.
From BBC • May 13, 2026
One night after dealing Braves ace Chris Sale his second loss of the season, the Dodgers’ offense did not wake up until the ninth inning.
From Los Angeles Times • May 10, 2026
Yet Mnuchin also isn’t anticipating “a make-or-break moment where one day we wake up and we can’t finance the debt,” he said Tuesday during a Bloomberg TV interview.
From MarketWatch • May 5, 2026
I would do anything for this tiny creature, but it’s not great for her to wake up so much.
From Slate • May 3, 2026
I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas for how to make her life easier.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
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.
