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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

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

But the irritable Rushdie felt like the real one, or at least the wide-awake one.

From New York Times ● May 24, 2021

Midnight, and the children were wide-awake in their beds.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

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

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

But now that he was wide awake it hit him like a ton of bricks.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

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