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. by extension Alert, aware.
- v. intransitive To become conscious after having slept.
- v. transitive To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
- v. transitive 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
- From Middle English awaken, from Old English awacan, from a- (intensive prefix) + wacan ("wake"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English awaken, from Old English āwacan : ā-, intensive pref. + wacan, wake; see wake1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘awake’.
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When a door is ajar
Words with the prefix "a"
ajar, asleep, akin, ablaze, afoot, abed, aground, aback, afloat, alive, abaft, abloom and 91 more...
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
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dandy's list
favourite words
cattywampus, wibble, fenagle, whisker, sneeze, wisteria, honeysuckle, clove, perihelion, glimmer, twilight, dusk and 264 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Gems from 1811 Dictionary of the Vulg...
Citation: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, unabridged from the original 1811 edition, with a foreword by Max Harris. London: Bibliophile Books, 1984.
Original title page: A Dictio...tuzzy-muzzy, half seas over, hugger mugger, hugotontheonbiqui..., doodle sack, juniper lecture, kate, kent street eject..., jack ketch, davy, abel-wackets, three-legged mare and 370 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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Idk, I like these words.
ethereality, apathy, consideration, soul, safety, lone wolf, darkness, pressure, ocean, few, collapse, believe and 155 more...
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Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
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Samme's Words
soliloquy, meander, creativity, magic, discovery, happiness, empowerment, abundance, [magnificent], iridescent, artistic, magical and 694 more...
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tragedy of the commons
insomnia, arabesque, carousal, lucifer, riot, submerge, initiate, indigo, existence, magenta, opus, sleeplessness and 145 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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a few of my favorite words
these are some of my favorite words...
brilliant, delicious, lovely, ever, with, present, here, light, radiant, bright, beauty, live and 209 more...
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Rocketeer's Words
defenestrate, shutterbug, antique, periscope, dogma, peculiar, eccentric, banana, apple, pear, cherry, photograph and 189 more...
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The Old English Influence
Modern English words impacted by and descended from Old English.
a, aback, abaft, abide, about, above, abode, accursed, accurst, ache, acknowledge, acorn and 109 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for awake.

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