awake

Meaning

Adj

1. Not asleep; conscious.
2. Alert, aware.

Verb

1. To become conscious after having slept.
2. To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
3. 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia
4. 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...
5. To make aware of something.
6. To excite or to stir up something latent.
7. To rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
8. To come out of a state of inaction or dormancy.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/əˈweɪk/

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”).