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Wake   /weɪk/   Listen
verb
Wake  v. t.  (past woke or waked; past part. woken or waked; pres. part. waking)  
1.
To rouse from sleep; to awake. "The angel... came again and waked me."
2.
To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite. "I shall waken all this company." "Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage." "Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm."
3.
To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive. "To second life Waked in the renovation of the just."
4.
To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.


Wake  v. i.  (past woke or waked; past part. woken or waked; pres. part. waking)  
1.
To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep. "The father waketh for the daughter." "Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps." "I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it."
2.
To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel. "The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels."
3.
To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; often with up. "He infallibly woke up at the sound of the concluding doxology."
4.
To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active. "Gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now waked." "Then wake, my soul, to high desires."


noun
Wake  n.  The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army. "This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions." "Several humbler persons... formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels."


Wake  n.  
1.
The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake. (Obs. or Poetic) "Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep." "Singing her flatteries to my morning wake."
2.
The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil. "The warlike wakes continued all the night, And funeral games played at new returning light." "The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep."
3.
Specifically:
(a)
(Ch. of Eng.) An annual parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking, often to excess. "Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England." "And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer."
(b)
The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish. "Blithe as shepherd at a wake."
Wake play, the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake, n., 3 (b), above. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Wake" Quotes from Famous Books



... though strange) That thy firm principles could never change; That hopes of preservation urged thy stay, Or force, which those resistless must obey. If this is error, let me still remain In error wrapp'd—nor wake to truth again! Come then, sweet Hope, with all thy train of joy Nor let Despair each rapt'rous thought destroy; Indulgent Heav'n, in pity to our tears, At length will bless a parent's sinking years; Again ...
— The Eventful History Of The Mutiny And Piratical Seizure - Of H.M.S. Bounty: Its Cause And Consequences • Sir John Barrow
... wrathfully. That Eustace Hignett should still be alive was bad—he had pictured him hurling himself overboard and bobbing about, a pleasing sight, in the wake of the vessel; that he should be singing was an outrage. Remorse, Sam thought should have stricken Eustace Hignett dumb. Instead of which, here he was comporting himself like a blasted linnet. It was all wrong. The man could have ...
— Three Men and a Maid • P. G. Wodehouse
... lifter in London," answered Holmes. "His appearance on Piccadilly was a signal always to Scotland Yard to wake up, and to the jewellers of Bond Street to lock up. My old daddy used to say that Baskingford could scent a Kohinoor quicker than a hound a fox. I wonder what his ...
— R. Holmes & Co. • John Kendrick Bangs
... (especially if the party is small), when a picket sentinel discovers any one lurking about his post from without, if he has not himself been seen, to quietly withdraw and report the fact to the commander, who can wake his men and make his arrangements to repel an attack and protect his animals. If, however, the man upon the picket has been seen, he should distinctly challenge the approaching party, and if he receives no answer, fire, and retreat to ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy
... forward and cut off his retreat. Wheeling then at a tangent, the rabbit flew toward the far end of the orchard, where there was a gap in the fence. Tara was after him like the wind, her puppies excitedly galloping in her wake, yapping with delight. Half-way across the orchard Tara overtook the bunny, and her great jaws closed upon the middle of its body, smashing the spinal column and killing instantaneously. A moment later and Finn was on the scene in a frenzy of excitement. Tara drew back, ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson


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