wake-up

[weyk-uhp]

noun

1. an act or instance of waking up.

2. an act or instance of being awakened.

   I asked the hotel desk for a wake-up at 6.

3. a time of awaking or being awakened.

   I'll need a 5 o'clock wake-up to make the early plane.

4. flicker.

adjective

1. serving to wake one from sleep.

   Tell the front desk you want a wake-up call.

2. serving to arouse or alert.

   a wake-up call on the problems of pollution.

wake-up

noun

1. informal,  an alert or intelligent person

2. informal,  to be fully alert to (a person, thing, action, etc)

Word History and Origins

Origin of wake-up¹

First recorded in 1835–45; noun, adj. use of verb phrase wake up

Example Sentences

But to her estranged husband, it was a wake-up call to "just how far things had spiralled out of control".

Read more on BBC

Charities insist there is an OCD crisis and say the figures should be a wake-up call for the government.

Read more on BBC

And yet, as the 2025 adaptation arrived in theaters this month, this queer, Latino-led story of two prisoners fighting the claustrophobia of life under fascism feels at once like a minor miracle, and a startling wake-up call.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The event was widely seen as a wake-up call to the dangers of methane and underground natural gas storage.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He also told the programme a car crash earlier this year while driving to work had been a "wake-up call" while a diagnosis of autism at the age of 34 had given him "a better understanding of why sometimes I do what I do".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• agitate 
• amaze 
• anger 
• animate 
• annoy 
• astound 
• bother 
• delight 
• disturb 
• energize 
• irritate 
• offend 
• thrill 
• turn on 
• vex 
• work up 
• worry