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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-wayk] / 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

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

But nodding off on the couch in the evening and then feeling wide-awake once you get into bed is “a typical pattern in chronic insomnia,” Pelayo says.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 25, 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

Soon enough you’ll be looking for a happy, wide-awake emoji with stars in its eyes.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 2021

Normally, I would have been napping at this time, but I was wide-awake and wondering what that boy had to say.

From "The World According to Humphrey" by Betty G. Birney

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

For the duration of the procedure the client is wide awake, having had low levels of local anaesthetic injected into the skin and the deeper tissue beneath.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2025

It was hours until dawn, but all were wide awake, the chatter incessant.

From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2023

As soon as Grimm's phone rang, he was wide awake.

From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2023

Francis is wide awake and wearing his favorite-slash-only bathrobe, like he’s some kingpin whose business makes him stacks on stacks of money instead of a technician spending the little he makes on us.

From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera