Search

a simple past tense and past participle of 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

i awoke in mid-air, as the shock wave hurled me against the bedroom’s far wall.
the extinction parade: an original zombie story by max brooks max brooks january 13, 2011

when he awoke, he told remes, doctors gave him two options: drink a bottle of ensure or be force-fed.
inside guantánamo’s force-feeding quagmire abby haglage june 19, 2013

three days later, i awoke with an idea of how i might give them my voice.
who will raise my daughters? bruce feiler april 26, 2010

someof the injured were being detained right after they awoke from anesthesia.
ukraine’s mother teresa of the maidan anna nemtsova february 27, 2014

i saw them every morning when i awoke and every evening when i climbed into bed.
rebels rise again over flag banning robert khayat july 27, 2014

historical examples

when he awoke, he found that the room was in darkness; it must have been night for several hours.
murder point coningsby dawson

she awoke milza, and desired that the household might be summoned.
philothea lydia maria child

upon the sunday of pedro’s great bullfight, carmen awoke early.
the little spanish dancer madeline brandeis

he only awoke when the driver took hold of him to lift him down.
rico and wiseli johanna spyri

when he awoke it was morning, and all the apples were gone from the tree.
fairy tales from many lands katherine pyle

verb
a past tense or (now rare or dialectal) past participle of awake
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

past tense of awake (v.), from old english awoc; also see awaken. the tendency has been to restrict the strong past tense (awoke) to the original intransitive sense of awake and the weak inflection (awakened) to the transitive, but this never has been complete.
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