wake

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a vigil held over a corpse the night before burial

   there's no weeping at an Irish wake

2. 2
   noun

   the wave that spreads behind a boat as it moves forward

   the motorboat's wake capsized the canoe

3. 3
   verb

   (often followed by up) To stop sleeping.

   I woke up at four o'clock this morning.

4. 4
   verb

   (often followed by up) To make somebody stop sleeping; to rouse from sleep.

   The neighbour's car alarm woke me from a strange dream.

5. 5
   verb

   To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.

   Not for my life, leſt fierce remembrance wake My ſudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.

6. 6
   verb

   To be excited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.

   and gentle Aires due at thir hour To fan the Earth now wak'd,

7. 7
   verb

   To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.

   Dougal said that being alone with the dead on that floor of the tower (for naebody cared to wake Sir Robert Redgauntlet like another corpse) he had never daured^([sic]) to answer the call, but that now his conscience checked him for neglecting his duty; […]

8. 8
   verb

   To be or remain awake; not to sleep.

   The father waketh for the daughter when no man knoweth, and the care for her taketh away sleepe;

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.