Awake


to wake up; rouse from sleep:
I awoke at six with a feeling of dread.
to rouse to action; become active:
His flagging interest awoke.
to come or bring to an awareness; become cognizant (often followed by to):
She awoke to the realities of life.
waking; not sleeping.
vigilant; alert:
They were awake to the danger.
Contemporary Examples

awake this morning to a new villain in the global financial meltdown.
Iceland Crisis: Panic Spreads Andrew Neil October 6, 2008

Eighty-nine percent occurred when the person was awake, rather than dreaming or dozing.
Knocking on Heaven’s Door: True Stories of Unexplained, Uncanny Experiences at the Hour of Death Patricia Pearson August 10, 2014

Our cars will chide us if we tailgate and watch us as we drive and jolt us awake if are distracted or drifting off to sleep.
Secrets of Google’s Robo-Car Paul Saffo October 10, 2010

For him that would be the 1990s, “where we had not too much danger but enough to keep us awake.”
The End of New York: How One Blog Tracks the Disappearance of a Vibrant City Tim Teeman August 5, 2014

The ghoul that keeps Putin awake at night is a Ukrainian Cossack.
Cossacks: The Cowboys of Crimea Kamil Tchorek March 11, 2014

Historical Examples

I stood waiting with the full pitcher in my hand till she should awake.
Mystics and Saints of Islam Claud Field

Mother must be awake now; and she’ll punish me if I go back.
The Tale of Grunty Pig Arthur Scott Bailey

Only the young Franciscan, silent and motionless just now at the feast, awake still.
An Eagle Flight Jos Rizal

Diana did not speak, or betray by any movement that she was awake.
A harum-scarum schoolgirl Angela Brazil

Thus does every hacienda throughout Yucatan awake to its day’s work.
The American Egypt Channing Arnold

verb awakes, awaking, awoke, awaked, awoken, awaked
to emerge or rouse from sleep; wake
to become or cause to become alert
(usually foll by to) to become or make aware (of): to awake to reality
(transitive) Also awaken. to arouse (feelings, etc) or cause to remember (memories, etc)
adjective (postpositive)
not sleeping
(sometimes foll by to) lively or alert
v.

a merger of two Middle English verbs: 1. awaken, from Old English awæcnan (earlier onwæcnan; strong, past tense awoc, past participle awacen) “to awake, arise, originate,” from a “on” + wacan “to arise, become awake” (see wake (v.)); and 2. awakien, from Old English awacian (weak, past participle awacode) “to awaken, revive; arise; originate, spring from,” from a “on” (see a (2)) + wacian “to be awake, remain awake, watch” (see watch (v.)).

Both originally were intransitive only; the transitive sense being expressed by Middle English awecchen (from Old English aweccan) until later Middle English. In Modern English, the tendency has been to restrict the strong past tense and past participle (awoke, awoken) to the original intransitive sense and the weak inflection (awakened) to the transitive, but this never has been complete (see wake (v.); also cf. awaken).
adj.

“not asleep,” c.1300, shortened from awaken, past participle of Old English awæcnan (see awaken).
Alert, Well, and Keeping Energetic Network

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