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• wide-awake
  wide-awake

  adjective

  fully awake; with the eyes wide open.
• wide awake
  wide awake

  Fully awake; also, very alert. For example, He lay there, wide awake, unable to sleep, or She was wide awake to all the possibilities. The wide in this idiom alludes to the eyes being wide open. [Early 1800s]

wide-awake

American  

[wahyd-uh-weyk] / ˈwaɪd əˈweɪk /

adjective

1. fully awake; with the eyes wide open.

   Synonyms:

   unsleeping, astir, wakeful, open-eyed, awake

   Antonyms:

   restful, sleeping, asleep, somnolent, lethargic, drowsy, sleepy

2. alert, keen, or knowing.

   a wide-awake young woman.

   Synonyms:

   astute, quick, sharp, vigilant, watchful

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noun

1. Also called wide-awake hat.  a soft, low-crowned felt hat.

2. the sooty tern.

wide-awake British  

adjective

1. fully awake

2. keen, alert, or observant

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noun

1. Also called: wide-awake hat.  a hat with a low crown and very wide brim

wide awake Idioms  

1. Fully awake; also, very alert. For example, He lay there, wide awake, unable to sleep, or She was wide awake to all the possibilities. The wide in this idiom alludes to the eyes being wide open. [Early 1800s]

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Other Word Forms

• wide-awakeness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of wide-awake

First recorded in 1810–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wide-awake wide awake

All that suggests that the case will keep jurors wide-awake during the six or so weeks it is projected to take.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024

I’m grateful to have seen it in a theater, which it absolutely deserves; audiences planning to stream it at home should know that it demands and rewards wide-awake attention.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2023

Here, for instance, is one of many passages in which our wide-awake heroine, Emma Averell, tries and fails to fall asleep:

From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2022

According to the wide-awake folks at Partners Coffee, the ideal ratio of coffee to water is 1:15.

From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2022

It only takes her about two seconds to get wide-awake.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

Or, finding yourself wide awake at 3am, brain whirring and no prospect of sleep.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

But he told AFP he still wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night "wide awake thinking about this piece."

From Barron's ● Apr. 5, 2026

Since then, I’ve asked it about helping with a nap schedule and used it as a sounding board to complain at 2 a.m. when my baby is wide awake — and I’m not alone.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2025

Snores weren’t a problem at “Sirât,” a nail-biter that had its midnight crowd wide awake.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2025

But I was wide awake, so I noticed a random moonbeam strike the doorknob as it began to turn.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck