wake

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Ava, one of the Black Death's top enforcers, and a woman who's perpetually 16 on the outside, is sent into Witness Protection after our hero and while she may be pretty ... what she leaves in her wake is anything but.

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Definitions (50)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (19)

  1. intransitive verb To cease to sleep; become awake: overslept and woke late.
  2. intransitive verb To stay awake: Bears wake for spring, summer, and fall and hibernate for the winter.
  3. intransitive verb To be brought into a state of awareness or alertness: suddenly woke to the danger we were in.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (18)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (9)

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Examples (50)

  • The carnage he'd left in his wake was the stuff of legends. —  AHMM,March2006
  • Over the course of the past year, those worries have fallen away, one by one, and what has been left in their wake is an intelligent, well-spoken, beautiful little girl. —  The Journey
  • Originally Posted by j0anne and the wake is at a golf club ... oh the irony —  All - Digital Spy - Entertainment and Media News
  • At Goody's request, the wake will be alcohol-free with mourners served tea and cake. —  Home | Mail Online
  • What that has to do with a total lack of any scouting system in his wake is anybody's guess. —  Winnipeg Sun
 

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This word has been looked up 121 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

aftermath ·  midst ·  wave ·  rush ·  arrival ·  sign ·  consequence ·  eve ·  afraid ·  onset ·  haze ·  ripple

Used in the same contextWord Family

wake:   woke ·  waked ·  waking ·  woken ·  wakes
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English wakien, waken, from Old English wacan, to wake up and wacian, to be awake, keep watch; see weg- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Possibly from Middle Low German, hole in the ice, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse vök.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Under this form are merged two verbs, one strong, the other weak: (a) from Middle English waken (preterit wok, wook, woc; plural woken; past participle waken, wakin), from Anglo-Saxon *wacan (preterit wōc, past participle *wacen), ariśe, come to life, originate, be born, = Goth, wakan (preterit wōk), wake. (b) from Middle English waken, wakien (preterit waked, past participle waked), from Anglo-Saxon wacian (preterit wacode, past participle wacod) = Old Saxon wakōn = OFries. waka = D. Middle Low German Waken = Old High German wachēn, wahhēn, Middle High German G. wachen = Icelandic vaka = Swedish vaka = Danish vaage, wake; cf. Anglo-Saxon weccan, weccean (preterit wehte) = Old Saxon wekkian = Dutch wekken = Old High German weccken, Middle High German G. wecken = Gothic (Moesogothic) *wakjan, in comp. uswakjan, arouse, awake; akin to L.vigil, wakeful, watchful, vigere, flourish, etc.: see vigil. Cf. watch, wait, from the same ult. source; cf. also waken, awake, awaken.
  2. from Middle English wake, from Anglo-Saxon *wacu, wake or watch, in comp. niht-wacu, a night-wake (= Icelandic vaka = Middle Low German wake, watch), from wacan, wake: see wake, v. Hence, in comp., likewake, lichwake.
  3. = Dutch wak, an opening in ice, from lcel vök (vak-), a hole, opening in the ice, = Swedish vak =Norwegian vok = Danish vaage, an opening in ice; allied to Icelandic vökr, moist, vökva, moisten, water, later Scots wak, moist, watery, = Dutch wak, moist; from Teutonicwak, wet, = Indo-Europeanwag, Latin umere, be moist, Greek ὑγρός, moist: see humid, humor, hygro-, etc. Cf. Old French ouage, French ouaiche, houache, wake, from English
 

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/weɪk/
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