1
a
: to be or remain awake
b
archaic : to remain awake on watch especially over a corpse
c
obsolete : to stay up late in revelry
1
: to stand watch over (someone or something)
especially : to hold a wake over
waker noun
1
: the state of being awake
2
a(1)
: an annual English parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the church's patron saint
(2)
b
: the festivities originally connected with the wake of an English parish church
—usually used in plural but singular or plural in construction
c
British : an annual holiday or vacation
—usually used in plural but singular or plural in construction
3
: a watch held over the body of a dead person prior to burial and sometimes accompanied by festivity
1
: the track left by a moving body (such as a ship) in a fluid (such as water)
broadly : a track or path left
see also:
Examples of wake in a Sentence
Verb She can never remember her dreams upon waking. my banging around in the kitchen woke my wife
Recent Examples on the Web
Allison Palmer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 Apr. 2026 Natural light comes into the loft on all sides, so feel free to turn off your alarm clock and let the sun wake you on its own. —Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 23 Apr. 2026
Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026 The first iteration of Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois program launched in the wake of COVID-19 in 2021, and its tools are now used within 800 schools across 82 counties. —Olivia Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 26 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for wake
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Verb
That distinction matters for anyone whose main frustration is waking in the night rather than struggling to fall asleep in the first place. —Allison Palmer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 Apr. 2026 Natural light comes into the loft on all sides, so feel free to turn off your alarm clock and let the sun wake you on its own. —Lydia Mansel, Travel + Leisure, 23 Apr. 2026
Noun
Everything the Stars said in the wake of Saturday’s breathless 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild in Game 4 — a gut-check win for the Wild, a gut-punch loss for the Stars — was true. —Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2026 The first iteration of Lurie Children’s Hospital’s Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois program launched in the wake of COVID-19 in 2021, and its tools are now used within 800 schools across 82 counties. —Olivia Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 26 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for wake
Cite this Entry
“Wake.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.grautoblog.com/dictionary/wake. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
wake
2 of 3 noun
: a time before a dead person is buried when people gather to remember him or her and often to view the body
wake
3 of 3 noun
1
: a track or path left by a moving body (as a ship) in the water
Etymology
Verb
from Old English wacan "to awake" and Old English wacian "to be awake"
Noun
of Germanic origin
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