Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To rouse from sleep; waken.
- v. To stir the interest of; excite.
- v. To stir up (memories, for example).
- v. To wake up.
- v. To become alert.
- v. To become aware or cognizant: awoke to reality. See Usage Note at wake1.
- adj. Completely conscious; not in a state of sleep.
- adj. Vigilant; watchful. See Synonyms at aware.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cease to sleep; come out of a state of natural sleep.
- To come into being or action as if from sleep.
- To bestir or rouse one's self from a state resembling sleep; emerge from a state of inaction; be invigorated with new life; become alive: as, to awake from sloth; to awake to the consciousness of a great loss.
- To be or remain awake; watch.
- To arouse from sleep.
- To arouse from a state resembling sleep, as from death, stupor, or inaction; put into action or new life: as, to awake the dead; to awake the dormant faculties.
- Synonyms To wake, excite, stir up, call forth, stimulate, spur (up).
- Roused from sleep; not sleeping; in a state of vigilance or action.
Wiktionary
- adj. Not asleep; conscious.
- adj. Alert, aware.
- v. To become conscious after having slept.
- v. To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
- v. to excite or to stir up something latent.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To rouse from sleep; to wake; to awaken.
- v. To rouse from a state resembling sleep, as from death, stupidity., or inaction; to put into action; to give new life to; to stir up
- v. To cease to sleep; to come out of a state of natural sleep; and, figuratively, out of a state resembling sleep, as inaction or death.
- adj. Not sleeping or lethargic; roused from sleep; in a state of vigilance or action.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not in a state of sleep; completely conscious
- adj. mentally perceptive and responsive
- v. stop sleeping
Etymologies
- Middle English awaken, from Old English āwacan : ā-, intensive pref. + wacan, wake; see wake1.
Examples
“I use the term awake here instead of the more commonly used word, enlightened.”
“I told my older sister about it, and found she too had what we call awake nightmares.”
“King was such a right accorded, and, as the King had early learned, to break Hardman Pool's siesta was to gain awake a very irritable and grumpy Hardman Pool who would talk straight from the shoulder and say unpleasant but true things that no king would care to hear.”
“She remained quiet, for she had learned the hypersensitiveness induced by drink and was fastidiously careful not to hurt him even with the knowledge that she had lain awake for him.”
“To become more awake is to be honest about all that is in us.”
“Some children remain awake, and we use a local numbing medicine at the site of the injection.”
“I have lain awake for hours, trying not to keep Spooky awake.”
“At some point, just as was predicted earlier by our spiritual director, I was called awake.”
The Huffington Post: Carol Jones: We Were Counting Breaths Till the Last One
“No, however we ask that when your child is awake that you remain awake to help identify the events.”
“Can you really say that all you think of during your hours awake is writing?”
oroboros Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to flight;
And Lo!, the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.
First stanza of Edward J. FitzGerald's first translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Here's the fifth version:
Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and
strikes
The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light. Jan 3, 2007