awaken
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈweɪkən/
rhymes: -eɪkən
Forms: form: awakens
form: awakening
form: awakened
form: awakened
Etymology: From Middle English awakenen or awaknen, from Old English awæcnan or awæcnian, from a- plus wæcnan or wæcnian.
Senses: examples: text: Be careful how you touch her, she'll awaken / As sleep's the only freedom all that she knows / And when you walk into her eyes, you won't believe / The way she's always paying for a debt she never owes
ref: 1973, New Birth, “Wildflower”, in It's Been A Long Time:
synonyms: knock up
uprouse
glosses: To cause to become awake.
examples: text: Each morning he awakens with a smile on his face.
text: For this growing set, the idea that we might have a fixed, natural lifespan is pure defeatism—“deathism” even, a spell from which we must awaken to realise our full potential.
ref: 2025 October 25, Stephen Cave, “Threescore and many more”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 9:
synonyms: word: awake
word: stir
word: abraid
word: arise
word: arouse
word: awake
word: awaken
word: get up
word: rise
word: rouse
word: stir
word: wake
word: wake up
word: waken
antonyms: fall asleep
glosses: To stop sleeping; awake.
examples: text: Awaken your entrepreneurial spirit!
text: We hope to awaken your interest in our programme.
text: On the other hand, the self-cleaning smokebox belongs to the latter-day period of the L.M.S.R., when the visiting U.S.A. 2-8-0s of the war had awakened an interest in such things.
ref: 1951 April, Stirling Everard, “A Matter of Pedigree”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 273:
text: I'll miss the sea. But a person needs new experiences. They draw something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.
ref: 1984, 20:05 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC:
synonyms: word: animate
word: energize
word: animate
word: arouse
word: awaken
word: beghast
word: leaven
word: bright
word: brighten
word: cheer
word: energize
word: enliven
word: enthuse
word: exalt
word: excite
word: fire up
word: ginger
word: ginger up
word: inflame
word: invigorate
word: inspire
word: inspirit
word: jazz
word: kindle
word: liven
word: liven up
word: perk up
word: quicken
word: spice
word: spice up
word: stimulate
word: vitalise
glosses: To bring into action (something previously dormant); to stimulate.
topics: lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: To call to a sense of sin.
examples: text: [This ant] I ſuffered to lye above an hour in the Spirit; and after I had taken it out, and put its body and legs into a natural poſture, remained moveleſs about an hour; but then , upon a ſudden, as if it had been awaken out of a drunken ſleep, it ſuddenly reviv'd and ran away...
ref: 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia:
glosses: past participle of awake
glosses: To cause to become aware.
examples: text: I suddenly awoke to the possibilities of the new invention.
text: [S]he pointedly remarked that they had just moved to the city a month previous, that they were dissatisfied, and would return to Hoosierdom in June. I was completely taken in, and departed without making the assessment. However, when whole flatsful began to make similar explanations under similar circumstances, I awoke to the fact that I had been bluffed.
ref: 1905 May 21, “Woes of Tax Assessor Many and Laughable. By a Deputy.”, in Worker’s Magazine: For the Man Who Works with Hand or Brain (The Sunday Plain Dealer), Cleveland, Oh., →OCLC, page [4], column 4:
glosses: To become aware.
Synonyms: word: arouse
word: awake
word: awaken
word: bring round
word: cry
word: knock up
word: rouse
word: roust
word: uprouse
word: wake
word: wake up
word: waken
Hyponyms: word: bewake
word: pipe up
Derived terms: awakenable
awakener
awakenment
reawaken
Related terms: word: reveille
word: wakefulness