Wake | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Wāke, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. WAKED (wākt); p. pr. & vb. n. WAKING.] [A-S. wacan, wacian, wacigan, wacigean, O. Sax. wacom, Goth. wakan, O. Fries. waka, Icel. vaka, Sw. vaken, Dan. vaage, D. & L. Ger. waken, O. H. Ger. wachōn, wachēn, N. H. Ger. wachen.] 1. To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep. The father waketh for the daughter. Ecclus. xlii. 9. Though wisdom wakes, suspicion sleeps. Milton. I can not think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. Locke. 2. To sit up late for festive purposes; to hold a night revel. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels. Shak.

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

Gentle airs to fan the earth now waked. Milton.

Wāke, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [A-S. wæccan, āweccan, weccean, Goth. vakjan, Icel. vekia, Sw. väcka, Dan. vække, D. wekken, O. H. Ger. wekjan, wechan, N. H. Ger. wecken.]

Sense 1. To rouse from sleep.

The angel that talked with me came again and waked me. Zech. iv. 1.

Sense 2. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.

Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage. Milton.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of arts. Pope.

Sense 3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to re-animate; to revive.

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

Sense 4. To sit up, or watch with at night, as a dead body.

Wāke, n.

noun

n. 1. Act of waking, or being awaked. “Singing her flatteries to my morning wake.” Dryden. 2. The state of forbearing sleep; vigils, especially for solemn or festive purposes. The warlike wakes continued all the night. And funeral games were played at new returning light. Dryden. The wood nymphs, decked with daisies trim, Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. Milton. 3. Hence, specifically, (a.) An annual parish festival in commemoration of the dedication of the 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 fairs and wakes throughout all England. Berners. And every village smokes at wakes with lusty cheer. Drayton. ☞ The feast was first regularly kept on that day in each week on which the church was dedicated; but it being observed and complained of that the number of holidays was excessively increased, to the detriment of civil government and secular affairs, and also that the great irregularities and licentiousness which had crept into these festivities by degrees were found highly injurious to piety, virtue, and good manners, both statutes and canons were made to regulate and restrain them, and their number was somewhat lessened. The feast of the dedication of every church was ordered to be kept on one and the same day every where—that is, on the first Sunday of October. This is now disregarded. Brande. (b.) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish. 4. The track left by a vessel in the water. Hence, figuratively, in the train of. “The disciples of Hant followed in his wake.” In the wake of, immediately after. This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions. De Quincey.