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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

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Etymology

Origin of wide-awake

First recorded in 1810–20

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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

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

He knew he ought to feel exhausted: It was nearly three in the morning, but he felt wide-awake — wide-awake, and worried.

From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling

He’s wide awake when he should be asleep because the middle of the night also happens to be his favorite time to work.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 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

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

I was wide awake, though, when I went into the kitchen for breakfast and saw that Aunt Pretty wasn’t alone.

From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney

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