wake

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

• noun The visible track of turbulence left by something moving through water.
• noun A track, course, or condition left behind something that has passed.
• idiom (in the wake of) Following directly on.
• idiom (in the wake of) In the aftermath of; as a consequence of.
• intransitive verb To cease to sleep; become awake.
• intransitive verb To stay awake.
• intransitive verb To be brought into a state of awareness or alertness.
• intransitive verb To hold or attend the wake of someone who has died.
• intransitive verb To cause to come out of sleep; awaken.
• intransitive verb To stir, as from a dormant or inactive condition; rouse.
• intransitive verb To make aware; alert or enlighten.
• noun A gathering of people in the presence of the body of a deceased person in order to honor the person and console one another.
• noun A parish festival held annually, often in honor of a patron saint.
• noun An annual vacation.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To be awake; continue awake; refrain from sleeping.
• To be excited or roused from sleep; cease to sleep; awake; be awakened: often followed by a redundant or intensive up.
• To keep watch; watch while others sleep; keep vigil; especially, to watch a night with a corpse.
• To be active; not to be quiescent.
• To be excited from a torpid or inactive state, either physical or mental; be put in motion or action.
• To hold a late revel; carouse late at night.
• To return to life; be aroused from the sleep of death; live.
• To rouse from sleep; awake; awaken: often followed by a redundant or intensive up.
• To watch by night; keep vigil with or over; especially, to hold a wake over, as a corpse. See wake, n., 3.
• To arouse; excite; put in motion or action: often with up.
• To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; revive; reanimate.
• To disturb; break.
• noun The act of waking, or the state of being awake; the state of not sleeping.
• noun The act of watching or keeping vigil, especially for a solemn or festive purpose; a vigil; specifically, an annual festival kept in commemoration of the completion and dedication of a parish church; hence, a merrymaking; a festive gathering.
• noun An all-night watch by the body of the dead, before burial.
• noun The track left by a ship or other moving object in the water.
• noun Hence, a track of any kind; a course of any nature that has already been followed by another thing or person.
• noun A row of damp green grass.

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

• intransitive verb To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.
• intransitive verb To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.
• intransitive verb To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; -- often with up.
• intransitive verb To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
• transitive verb To rouse from sleep; to awake.
• transitive verb To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.
• transitive verb To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive.
• transitive verb To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
• noun Obs. or Poetic The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake.
• noun The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.
• noun (Ch. of Eng.) An annual 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, often to excess.
• noun The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish.
• noun [Obs.] the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake, n., 3 (b), above.
• noun The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track.

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

• noun A period after a person's death before the body is buried, in some cultures accompanied by a party.