Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not sleeping or not able to sleep.
  • adjective Without sleep; sleepless.
  • adjective Watchful; alert.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Indisposed or unable to sleep; affected by insomnia.
  • Watchful; vigilant.
  • Rousing from, or as from, sleep.
  • Synonyms and
  • See watchful.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Not sleeping; indisposed to sleep; watchful; vigilant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective awake rather than sleeping
  • adjective sleepless
  • adjective vigilant and alert; watchful

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective carefully observant or attentive; on the lookout for possible danger
  • adjective (of sleep) easily disturbed
  • adjective marked by full consciousness or alertness

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • And sitting here surrounded with roses and with that languorous lilt in her ear, Crystal felt as if she too were under the influence of some unseen Mesmer, who had lulled the activity of her brain into a kind of wakeful sleep even while her senses remained keenly, vitally on the alert.

    The Bronze Eagle A Story of the Hundred Days Emmuska Orczy Orczy 1906

  • Evidently this was not one of his "wakeful" periods.

    Mary Louise in the Country J. Allen St. [Illustrator] John 1887

  • Cragg used it as a rendezvous or workshop and visited it stealthily on his "wakeful" nights.

    Mary Louise in the Country J. Allen St. [Illustrator] John 1887

  • Fergus and I, after having lain awake for a considerable time, taking it for granted that they had given up all intention of attacking the house, at length fell into a kind of wakeful doze from which we were at once aroused by a loud knocking at the hall-door.

    The Tithe-Proctor The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two William Carleton 1831

  • I think he's a "wakeful" baby, whatever the fuck that means.

    The Science Of Sleep 2009

  • That we sometimes recognize certain objects, such as wakeful human beings, as agents, does not mean that there’s a separate category of entities — we clearly also recognize these agents as physical objects subject to the same physical laws as any other object — why not?

    Paul Nelson makes a bizarre argument - The Panda's Thumb 2007

  • Always, always, there are wakeful eyes on the Elsinore.

    CHAPTER XIX 2010

  • The point was, that as twilight and evening came on he became wakeful.

    When the World Was Young 2010

  • “No peaceful sleep, Domnuathi, but a wakeful eternity in the deepest pits of Annwn.”

    Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011

  • “No peaceful sleep, Domnuathi, but a wakeful eternity in the deepest pits of Annwn.”

    Earl of Durkness Alix Rickloff 2011

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