awake

comparative more awake · superlative most awake

1. not comparablepredicativeNot asleep; conscious.

   We've lain awake a good many nights worrying about her.

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: conscious, lucid, wide awake · Antonyms: asleep, unconscious, asleep, cold, comatose, dead to the world, dormant, down for the count

2. broadlyfigurativelypredicativeAlert, aware.

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

   3 more examples

   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

   ‘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: wary, woke, alert, aware, heedful, hip, observant, on guard · Antonyms: heedless, oblivious

present singular third person awakes · participle present awaking · past awoke · past rare awaked · participle past awoken · participle past rare awaked · participle past rare awoke · participle past rare awaken

1. intransitivepredicativeTo 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

   Synonyms: awaken, wake up, abraid, arise, arouse, awaken, get up, rise · Antonyms: fall asleep, crash out, doze off, drift off, drop off, fall asleep, get off, go night-night

2. predicativetransitiveTo cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.

   [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

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   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

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “primum”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII

   Synonyms: bring round, cry, wake up, arouse, awaken, bring round, cry, knock up · Antonyms: put to sleep

3. predicativetransitiveTo make aware of something.
4. predicativetransitiveTo excite or to stir up something latent.
5. figurativelypredicativetransitiveTo rouse from a state of inaction or dormancy.
6. figurativelyintransitivepredicativeTo 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.

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   Awake to righteousness, and sin not.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 15:34

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

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

8. predicativeUsed 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.