From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wake \Wake\, n.
1. The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of
being awake. [Obs. or Poetic]
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Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep.
--Shak.
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Singing her flatteries to my morning wake. --Dryden.
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2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or
festive purposes; a vigil.
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The warlike wakes continued all the night,
And funeral games played at new returning light.
--Dryden.
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The wood nymphs, decked with daises trim,
Their merry wakes and pastimes keep. --Milton.
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3. Specifically:
(a) (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.
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Great solemnities were made in all churches, and
great fairs and wakes throughout all England.
--Ld. Berners.
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And every village smokes at wakes with lusty
cheer. --Drayton.
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(b) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often
attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the
Irish. "Blithe as shepherd at a wake." --Cowper.
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Wake play, the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a
wake. See Wake, n., 3
(b), above. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wake \Wake\, n. [Originally, an open space of water s?rrounded
by ice, and then, the passage cut through ice for a vessel,
probably of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. v["o]k a hole, opening
in ice, Sw. vak, Dan. vaage, perhaps akin to E. humid.]
The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any
track; as, the wake of an army.
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This effect followed immediately in the wake of his
earliest exertions. --De Quincey.
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Several humbler persons . . . formed quite a procession
in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels. --Thackeray.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wake \Wake\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Wakedor Woke (?); p. pr. &
vb. n. Waking.] [AS. wacan, wacian; akin to OFries. waka,
OS. wak?n, D. waken, G. wachen, OHG. wahh?n, Icel. vaka, Sw.
vaken, Dan. vaage, Goth. wakan, v. i., uswakjan, v. t., Skr.
v[=a]jay to rouse, to impel. ????. Cf. Vigil, Wait, v.
i., Watch, v. i.]
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1. To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.
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The father waketh for the daughter. --Ecclus.
xlii. 9.
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Though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps. --Milton.
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I can not think any time, waking or sleeping,
without being sensible of it. --Locke.
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2. To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.
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The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels.
--Shak.
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3. To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be
awakened; to cease to sleep; -- often with up.
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He infallibly woke up at the sound of the concluding
doxology. --G. Eliot.
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4. To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a
dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
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Gentle airs due at their hour
To fan the earth now waked. --Milton.
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Then wake, my soul, to high desires. --Keble.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wake \Wake\, v. t.
1. To rouse from sleep; to awake.
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The angel . . . came again and waked me. --Zech. iv.
1.
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2. To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite. "I shall
waken all this company." --Chaucer.
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Lest fierce remembrance wake my sudden rage.
--Milton.
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Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his
island realm. --J. R. Green.
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3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to
reanimate; to revive.
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To second life
Waked in the renovation of the just. --Milton.
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4. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
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