wide awake

comparative more wide awake · superlative most wide awake · alternative wide-awake

1. idiomaticAwake and very alert; vigilant, watchful.

   "They are almost awake, not quite," said Lucy. She knew she herself was wide awake, wider than anyone usually is.

   1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

   3 more examples

   Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake—not merely conscious, but wide awake.

   1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 49

   I woke with a start. With the blackout curtains closed I didn't know what time it was. I looked at my watch. It said four o'clock. I had been asleep for only two hours, but I was wide awake.

   1978, Richard Nixon, “The Presidency 1973–1974”, in RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1085

   I am the teeth that grinds at your bones / As you lie there a failure with your will so weak / I am the ache you feel in your tomb / As you lay in your body still wide awake

   2025, “Bedlam”, in Hymns in Dissonance, performed by Whitechapel, United States

   Synonyms: broad awake

2. figurativelyKeyed in or aware of things; not oblivious; woke.

   LF 37, F 33, working class backgrounds, left-ish politics, seek wide-awake F 30+ to share friendly, indep apt.

   1984 April 21, “Classified advertisement”, in Gay Community News, page 19