awake

From Middle English awaken or awakien, from Old English awacan or awacian, from a- (intensive prefix) + wacan or wacian. Compare Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).

• IPA^(key): /əˈweɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk

awake (comparative more awake, superlative most awake) (predicative only)

1. Not asleep; conscious.

   Synonyms: conscious, lucid, wide awake; see also Thesaurus:awake

   Antonyms: asleep, unconscious; see also Thesaurus:asleep

2. (figuratively, by extension) Alert, aware.

   Synonyms: wary, woke; see also Thesaurus:vigilant

   Antonyms: heedless, oblivious

   They were awake to the possibility of a decline in sales.

• half-awake

awake (third-person singular simple present awakes, present participle awaking, simple past awoke or (rare) awaked, past participle awoken or (rare) awaked or (rare) awoke or (rare) awaken)

1. (intransitive) To become conscious after having slept.

   Synonyms: awaken, wake up; see also Thesaurus:wake

   Antonyms: fall asleep; see also Thesaurus:fall asleep

   • (Can we date this quote?) Salvador Dalí

     Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali.

2. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.

   Synonyms: bring round, cry, wake up; see also Thesaurus:awaken

   Antonym: put to sleep

   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter primum, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:

     Thenne she called the heremyte syre Vlfyn I am a gentylwoman that wold speke with the knyght whiche is with yow / Thenne the good man awaked Galahad / & badde hym aryse and speke with a gentylwoman that semeth hath grete nede of yow / Thenne Galahad wente to her & asked her what she wold

   • 1665 Robert Hooke, Micrographia

     [This ant] I ſuffered to lye above an hour in the Spirit; and after I had taken it out, and put its body and legs into a natural poſture, remained moveleſs about an hour; but then , upon a ſudden, as if it had been awaken out of a drunken ſleep, it ſuddenly reviv'd and ran away...

3. (transitive) to excite or to stir up something latent.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
5. (intransitive, figuratively) To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Edward Augustus Freeman

     The national spirit again awoke.

   • Bible, 1 Corinthians xv. 34

     Awake to righteousness, and sin not.

• awaker

• awake to
• awaken
• wake
• wake up

• “awake” in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “awake” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "awake" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
• awake in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• awake in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.