WAKE, v.i. [G. The primary sense is to stir, to rouse, to excite.]

1. The feast of the dedication of the church, formerly kept by watching all night. – Dryden. King.
2. Vigils; state of forbearing sleep. Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. – Milton.
3. Act of waking. [Old song.] Wake of a ship, the track it leaves in the water, formed by the meeting of the water, which rushes from each side to fill the space which the ship makes in passing through it. To be in the wake of a ship, is to be in her track or in a line with her keel.

1. To be awake; to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep. – Ps. cxxvii. The father waketh for the daughter. – Ecclus. Though wisdom wakes, suspicion sleeps. – Milton. I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. – Locke.
2. To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened. He wakes at the slightest noise.
3. To cease to sleep; to awake.
4. To be quick; to be alive or active. – Dryden.
5. To be excited from a torpid state; to be put in motion. The dormant powers of nature wake from their frosty slumbers. Gentle airs to fan the earth now wak'd. – Milton.

1. To rouse from sleep. The angel that talked with me, came again and waked me. – Zech. iv.
2. To arouse; to excite; to put in motion or action. Prepare war, wake up the mighty men. – Joel iii. [The use of up is common, but not necessary.] To wake the soul by tender strokes of art. – Pope.
3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death. To second life / Wak'd in the renovation of the just. – Milton.

1. The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army.
   
   

   This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions. De Quincey.

   Several humbler persons . . . formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels. Thackeray.

2. To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.
   
   

   The father waketh for the daughter. Ecclus. xlii. 9.

   Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps. Milton.

   I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. Locke.

3. To rouse from sleep; to awake.
   
   

   The angel . . . came again and waked me. Zech. iv. 1.

4. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake.
   
   
   [Obs. or Poetic]

   Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep. Shak.

   Singing her flatteries to my morning wake. Dryden.

5. To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.
   
   

   The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,
   Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels. Shak.

6. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.
   
   
   "I shall waken all this company." Chaucer.

   Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage. Milton.

   Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm. J. R. Green.

7. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.
   
   

   The warlike wakes continued all the night,
   And funeral games played at new returning light. Dryden.

   The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim,
   Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. Milton.

8. To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; -- often with up.
   
   

   He infallibly woke up at the sound of the concluding doxology. G. Eliot.

9. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive.
   
   

   To second life
   Waked in the renovation of the just. Milton.

10. 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.
    
    

    Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England. Ld. Berners.

    And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer. Drayton.

    (b)

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

    Gentle airs due at their hour
    To fan the earth now waked. Milton.

    Then wake, my soul, to high desires. Keble.

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