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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

She does provide intricate detail about, for instance, how the station’s drinking water gets recycled from everyone’s urine, or how “the wide-awake, always-awake station vibrates with fans and filters.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 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

On Saturday March 12, Bria Pugh found herself wide-awake at 4 a.m.

From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 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

I’m wide-awake when I should be sleeping to get ready for our big day.

From "The House That Lou Built" by Mae Respicio

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

This coffee had me feeling energized and wide awake first thing in the morning, only after a few sips.

From Salon ● Nov. 6, 2025

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

This was a deep, calming state, one in which I was wide awake but unable to zero in on a specific thought or concern.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025

Vera Claythorne lay in bed, wide awake, staring up at the ceiling...

From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie