English▸ verb
(past or US English dialect, or archaic waked)
(past participle or US English dialect, or archaic waked)
1 emerge or cause to emerge from sleep; stop sleeping:
[no object] she woke up feeling better
[with object] I woke him gently.
▪ (wake up to) [no object] become alert to or aware of:
he needs to wake up to reality.
▪ [with object] cause to stir or come to life:
his voice wakes desire in others.
2 [with object] dialect Irish English or / North American English hold a vigil beside (someone who has died):
we waked Jim last night.
▸ noun
1 a ceremony or celebration in honour of a person who has died, held before or after the funeral (traditionally taking the form of a watch or vigil held beside the body of the dead person):
he was attending a friend's wake
mourners gathered at the house to hold a wake for the youth.
2 (wakes) [treated as singular] an annual festival and holiday held in some parts of northern England, originally one held in a rural parish on the feast day of the patron saint of the church:
his workers absented themselves for the local wakes
[as modifier] wakes weeks.
[probably from Old Norse vaka]
– ORIGIN Old English (recorded only in the past tense wōc), also partly from the weak verb wacian ‘remain awake, hold a vigil’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch waken and German wachen; compare with watch.