Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To rouse from sleep; waken.
  • intransitive verb To make aware of.
  • intransitive verb To stir up (memories, for example).
  • intransitive verb To wake up.
  • intransitive verb To become alert.
  • intransitive verb To become aware or cognizant.
  • adjective Completely conscious; not in a state of sleep.
  • adjective Fully alert; attuned. synonym: aware.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Roused from sleep; not sleeping; in a state of vigilance or action.
  • To cease to sleep; come out of a state of natural sleep.
  • To come into being or action as if from sleep.
  • To bestir or rouse one's self from a state resembling sleep; emerge from a state of inaction; be invigorated with new life; become alive: as, to awake from sloth; to awake to the consciousness of a great loss.
  • To be or remain awake; watch.
  • To arouse from sleep.
  • To arouse from a state resembling sleep, as from death, stupor, or inaction; put into action or new life: as, to awake the dead; to awake the dormant faculties.
  • Synonyms To wake, excite, stir up, call forth, stimulate, spur (up).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To cease to sleep; to come out of a state of natural sleep; and, figuratively, out of a state resembling sleep, as inaction or death.
  • transitive verb To rouse from sleep; to wake; to awaken.
  • transitive verb To rouse from a state resembling sleep, as from death, stupidity., or inaction; to put into action; to give new life to; to stir up
  • adjective Not sleeping or lethargic; roused from sleep; in a state of vigilance or action.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not asleep; conscious.
  • adjective by extension Alert, aware.
  • verb intransitive To become conscious after having slept.
  • verb transitive To cause (somebody) to stop sleeping.
  • verb transitive to excite or to stir up something latent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective not in a state of sleep; completely conscious
  • adjective mentally perceptive and responsive
  • verb stop sleeping

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English awaken, from Old English āwacan : ā-, intensive pref. + wacan, wake; see wake.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English awaken, from Old English awacan, from a- (intensive prefix) + wacan ("wake").

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Examples

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  • Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night

    Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to flight;

    And Lo!, the Hunter of the East has caught

    The Sultan's Turret in a Noose of Light.

    First stanza of Edward J. FitzGerald's first translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

    Here's the fifth version:

    Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight

    The Stars before him from the Field of Night,

    Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and

    strikes

    The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light.

    January 3, 2007