awake

awake [uh-weyk] Word Origin See more synonyms for awake on Thesaurus.com verb (used with or without object), a·woke or a·waked, a·woke or a·waked or a·wo·ken, a·wak·ing.

1. to wake up; rouse from sleep: I awoke at six with a feeling of dread.
2. to rouse to action; become active: His flagging interest awoke.
3. to come or bring to an awareness; become cognizant (often followed by to): She awoke to the realities of life.

adjective

4. waking; not sleeping.
5. vigilant; alert: They were awake to the danger.

Origin of awake before 1000; Middle English awaken, Old English awacen, past participle of awæcnan; see a1, waken Related formsa·wake·a·ble, adjectivehalf-a·wake, adjectivere·a·wake, verb, re·a·woke or re·a·waked, re·a·wak·ing.un·a·wake, adjectiveun·a·wake·a·ble, adjectiveun·a·waked, adjectiveun·a·wak·ing, adjective Related Words for unawake asleep, dreaming, fast, inactive, inert, sound, unconscious, crashed, napping British Dictionary definitions for unawake awake verb awakes, awaking, awoke, awaked, awoken or awaked

1. to emerge or rouse from sleep; wake
2. to become or cause to become alert
3. (usually foll by to) to become or make aware (of)to awake to reality
4. Also: awaken (tr) to arouse (feelings, etc) or cause to remember (memories, etc)

adjective (postpositive)

5. not sleeping
6. (sometimes foll by to) lively or alert

Word Origin for awake Old English awacian, awacan; see wake 1 xref See wake 1 Word Origin and History for unawake awake v.

a merger of two Middle English verbs: 1. awaken, from Old English awæcnan (earlier onwæcnan; strong, past tense awoc, past participle awacen) “to awake, arise, originate,” from a “on” + wacan “to arise, become awake” (see wake (v.)); and 2. awakien, from Old English awacian (weak, past participle awacode) “to awaken, revive; arise; originate, spring from,” from a “on” (see a (2)) + wacian “to be awake, remain awake, watch” (see watch (v.)).

Both originally were intransitive only; the transitive sense being expressed by Middle English awecchen (from Old English aweccan) until later Middle English. In Modern English, the tendency has been to restrict the strong past tense and past participle (awoke, awoken) to the original intransitive sense and the weak inflection (awakened) to the transitive, but this never has been complete (see wake (v.); also cf. awaken).

awake adj.

“not asleep,” c.1300, shortened from awaken, past participle of Old English awæcnan (see awaken).