awake meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

awake

adj

/əˈweɪk/ · [əˈweːk]

Etymology From Middle English awake, a shortened form of awaken (“awakened, awake”), past participle of Middle English awaken (“to awaken”). See verb below. Compare Saterland Frisian woak (“awake”), German Low German waak (“awake”), German wach (“awake”).

Not asleep; conscious.

By quarter to six all this had me so awake and agitated that even the Balinese wind chimes that I hung up in the garden to relax me began to sound like Big Ben.2000, Bill Oddie, Gripping Yarns, page 86:

Broadly, Figuratively Alert, aware.

They were awake to the possibility of a decline in sales.
The Baker was a two-handed hitter, and seemed perfectly awake to the business before him.1845, The Sportsman's Magazine of Life in London and the Country, page 355:

2 more examples

‘Sammy,’ whispered Mr. Weller, looking cautiously round; ‘[…] Me and a cab’net-maker has dewised a plan for gettin’ him out. A pianner, Samivel—a pianner!’ […] ‘And wot ‘ud be the good o’ that?’ said Sam. ‘Let him send to my friend, the cabinet-maker, to fetch it back, Sammy,’ replied Mr. Weller. ‘Are you avake, now?’ ‘No,’ rejoined Sam. ‘There ain’t no vurks in it,’ whispered his father. ‘It ‘ull hold him easy, vith his hat and shoes on, and breathe through the legs, vich his holler. […]1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:
And so we see in our own world a revolution of rising expectations. The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution.1965 June, Martin Luther King, Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution:

Synonyms: alert, awake, caffeinated, conscious, invigorated, invigorating, lively, wakeful, wakesome, woke
Antonyms: asleep, unconscious
Derived terms: awakeness, be awake, broad awake, half-awake, nonawake, unawake, wide-awake, wideawake
Related terms: bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, up and at 'em, vigilant, wake, wakefulness
Hyponyms: broad awake, wide awake

awake

verb

Etymology From Middle English awaken and awakien, from Old English āwacan and āwacian. By surface analysis, a- + wake.

8 senses

1To become conscious after having slept.
2To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
3To make aware of something.
4To excite or to stir up something latent.
5To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
6To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.
7Used in a phrasal verb: to awake to (“to become awake of…
8Used in a phrasal verb: to awake to (“to be roused from…

To become conscious after having slept.

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 Sultán's Turret in a Noose of light.1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:

To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.

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 wold1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “primum”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:
[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...1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia:

To make aware of something.

To excite or to stir up something latent.

Figuratively To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.

Figuratively To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.

1867-1879, Edward Augustus Freeman, The History of the Norman Conquest of England The national spirit again awoke.
Awake to righteousness, and sin not.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:34:

Used in a phrasal verb: to awake to (“to become awake of something and its possibile effects or results.”).

It took her some time to awake to the dangers of her situation.

Used in a phrasal verb: to awake to (“to be roused from one's sleep, due to a noise or other stimulus.”).

this morning, I awoke to the sound of my neighbor's barking dog.

Derived terms: awakable, awaker, reawake
Related terms: awake to, awaken, wake, wake up, woke

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