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wake

Pronunciation: /ˈweɪ̯k/

The English word “wake” has 18 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. (often followed by up) To stop sleeping.
  2. (often followed by up) To make somebody stop sleeping; to rouse from sleep.
  3. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.
  4. To be excited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
  5. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
  6. To be or remain awake; not to sleep.
  7. To be alert; to keep watch
  8. To sit up late for festive purposes; to hold a night revel.

noun

  1. A period after a person's death before or after the body is buried, cremated, etc.; in some cultures accompanied by a party or collectively sorting through the deceased's personal effects.
  2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.
  3. A yearly 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.
  4. The act of waking, or state of being awake.
  5. A group of vultures or buzzards.
  6. The path left behind a ship on the surface of the water.
  7. The disturbance which follows an object, person or animal moving through water.
  8. The turbulent air left behind a flying aircraft.
  9. The area behind a moving person or object.
  10. The perturbation behind a body moving through a fluid.

Etymology

A merger of two verbs of related/similar form and meaning: * Middle English waken, Old English wacan, from Proto-West Germanic *wakan, from Proto-Germanic *wakaną. * Middle English wakien, Old English wacian, from Proto-West Germanic *wakēn, from Proto-Germanic *wakāną.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.