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v. woke (wōk) or waked (wākt), waked or wok·en (wōkən), wak·ing, wakes v.intr. 1. a. To cease to sleep; become awake: overslept and woke late. b. To stay awake: Bears wake for spring, summer, and fall and hibernate for the winter. c. To be brought into a state of awareness or alertness: suddenly woke to the danger we were in. 2. To hold or attend the wake of someone who has died. v.tr. 1. To cause to come out of sleep; awaken. 2. To stir, as from a dormant or inactive condition; rouse: wake old animosities. 3. To make aware; alert or enlighten: The report woke me to the facts of the matter. n. 1. A gathering of people in the presence of the body of a deceased person in order to honor the person and console one another. 2. wakes (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Chiefly British a. A parish festival held annually, often in honor of a patron saint. b. An annual vacation. [Middle English wakien, waken, from Old English wacan, to wake up and wacian, to be awake, keep watch; see weg- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] waker n. Usage Note: The pairs wake, waken and awake, awaken have formed a bewildering array since the Middle English period. All four words have similar meanings, though there are some differences in use. Only wake is used in the sense "to be awake," as in expressions like waking (not wakening) and sleeping, every waking hour. Wake is also more common than waken when used together with up, and awake and awaken never occur in this context: She woke up (rarely wakened up; never awakened up or awoke up). Some writers have suggested that waken should be used only transitively (as in The alarm wakened him) and awaken only intransitively (as in He awakened at dawn), but there is ample literary precedent for usages such as He wakened early and They did not awaken her. In figurative senses awake and awaken are more prevalent: With the governor's defeat, the party awoke to the strength of the opposition. The scent of the gardenias awakened my memory of his unexpected appearance that afternoon years ago. · Regional American dialects vary in the way that certain verbs form their principal parts. Northern dialects seem to favor forms that change the internal vowel in the verb—hence dove for the past tense of dive, and woke for wake: They woke up with a start. Southern dialects, on the other hand, tend to prefer forms that add an -ed to form the past tense and the past participle of these same verbs: The children dived into the swimming hole. The baby waked up early. |
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