Forms: 4 wak, woke, Sc. walk, 6 wacke, also pl. (sense 4) waakes, wakesses, waks, 2– wake. [In form the word corresponds to OE. *wacu str. fem., occurring once in nihtwaco night-watch. Compare also the wk. fem. forms, MDu. wake (Du. waak), MLG. wake, OHG. wacha (MHG., modG. wache), wakefulness, watching, watch, ON. vaka (MSw., Sw. vaka, Norw. voka) watch, vigil, eve of a feast; related to WAKE v. In the sense ‘state of wakefulness,’ the sb. is prob. in part a new formation in ME. on the stem of WAKE v., on the analogy of sleep vb. and sb. In sense 4 adoption from ON. is possible; the sense ‘merry-making’ is found in ON. and Norw.; cf. ON. Jónsvaka, Norw. Jóns(v)oka St. John’s Eve, Midsummer festivities.]
1. The state of wakefulness esp. during normal hours of sleep. Obs. exc. in sleep and (or) wake, wake and dream.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1590. Al for hire louerdes sake Haueþ daies kare and niȝtes wake.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. i. 219. Making such difference betwixt Wake and Sleepe, As is the difference betwixt Day and Night.
1823. ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, s.v., At Bristol one eye is ever upon the wake while the other nappeth.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Brown Rosary, II. Repeat the vow—declare its cause and kind Which, not to break, in sleep or wake, thou bearest on thy mind.
1898. J. B. Crozier, My Inner Life, I. iv. 33. In that half-conscious state between sleep and wake when all sensations, but especially those of pain, are magnified, and fall, as it were, raw on the soul.
1913. Edin. Rev., Jan., 194. Their beauty is the beauty of a kind of mirage that haunts the borders between wake and dream.
† b. A state or period of wakefulness. Obs.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, II. (1620), 22. What thinke you of a pleasing dreame to last till morning? Gal. I shall chose my Lord a pleasing wake before it.
1626. B. Jonson, Staple of N., II. v. That youth, and shape, which in my dreames and wakes, I haue so oft contemplated.
† c. The act of awaking. Obs.
1678. Dryden, All for Love, V. i. Who follow’d me, but as the Swallow Summer, Hatching her young ones in my kindly Beams, Singing her flatt’ries to my morning wake.
† 2. Abstinence from sleep, watching, practised as a religious observance: often coupled with fasting. Also, an instance of this; a night spent in devout watching (on the eve of a festival, of the reception of knighthood, etc.); a watch, vigil.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues, 125. Mid fasten, oððer mid wake.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 10302. O-mang þir hirdes duelland þare, In praier, wak, and weping sare.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xl. (Ninian), 59. & hyme abondonit ythanly in prayere, fastyng, & in wake, hyme-selfe seruand to god to mak.
1559. in Strype, Ann. Ref. (1709), I. App. XVI. 48. Moreover, the Common Watchings, or Wakes, of Men and Women at the Martyrs Graves … was afterwards abrogated and rejected.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw., xxv. 105 b. They haue also 3 Vigils, or Wakes in their great Lent, which they cal Stoiania.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 175. As many as the place would receive watched and praied in the said Temple, But the Prince of Wales, held his wake … within the Church of Westminster.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 434. After this Supper ended followes [among the Essenes] a sacred wake, or vigill, kept in this manner.
3. The watching (esp. by night) of relatives and friends beside the body of a dead person from death to burial, or during a part of that time; the drinking, feasting and other observances incidental to this. Now chiefly Anglo-Irish or with reference to Irish custom. Also applied to similar funeral customs in other times or among pagan peoples.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. 3261. What shulde I now any lenger dwelle … for to telle … of þe pleies called palestral, Nor þe wrastelyng þat was at þe wake?
a. 1529. Skelton, P. Sparowe, 437. The gose and the gander, The ducke and the drake, Shall watche at this wake.
1572. Inv. Ketshange (Somerset Ho.). Her wacke and buriall xiiijd.
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., III. 998. The warlike Wakes continu’d all the Night, And Fun’ral Games were played at new-returning Light.
1724. Swift, Acc. Wood’s Exec., Misc. (1735), V. 317. When he was cut down, the Body was carried through the whole City to gather Contributions for his Wake.
1726–31. Waldron, Descr. Isle of Man (1865), 60. When a person dies, several of his acquaintance come to sit up with him, which they call the Wake.
1778. Phil. Surv. S. Irel., 210. The series of ceremonies used on the night,… that the corpse remains unburied, is what they call a wake.
1814. W. S. Mason, Statist. Acc. Irel., I. 596. The Presbyterian wake is conducted with profound silence and great decorum…. The wakes of the members of the established church differ little from those in other parts of Ireland.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xxiii. 468. A poor man and his wife were accused of having bewitched the man, whose wake was now held in the village.
1874. C. E. Norton, Lett. (1913), II. 42. Sumner is dead. We have had a great wake over him, and the echoes of it have scarcely yet died away.
1894. Gladstone, Odes Hor., II. xviii. 18. New contracts for new marbles thou dost make, But thou art near thy wake.
4. The vigil of a festival (and senses thence derived).
In this use wake is a translation of Eccl. L. vigilia, primarily referring to the rule of the early church that certain feast-days should be preceded by services lasting through the night. When this rule had ceased to exist, the vigil continued to be a pretext for nocturnal festivity, and the use of the word wake was extended to denote not only the eve but also the feast-day itself, and the whole period during which festivities continued.
a. The vigil or eve of a festival, and the observances belonging to this. Also, a festival. Obs. exc. dial.
15[?]. Part of a Register (1593), 64. Their Saints dayes and their prescript seruice. Their waakes, and idolatrous bankets.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss. (1812), I. clxix. 207. Great solemnytes were made in all churches, and great fyers and wakes, throughout all Englande.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, II. xliii. 276. I knowe well that the common sort doe verily thinke and auerre, that this seede cannot be gathered but on the night of the wakes of S. Iohn in sommer.
a. 1629. Hinde, J. Bruen, xxix. (1641), 89. Their Wakes and Vigils, in all riot and excesse of eating and drinking.
a. 1806. H. K. White, Poems (1837), 136. Such is the jocund wake of Whitsuntide.
1876. Mid-Yorks. Gloss., Wake, casually employed in Mid-Yorks. and the north, for vigils, or the superstitious rites performed on the eves of St. Agnes and St. Mark.
b. The local annual festival of an English (now chiefly rural) parish, observed (originally on the feast of the patron saint of the church, but now usually on some particular Sunday and the two or three days following) as an occasion for making holiday, entertainment of friends, and often for village sports, dancing and other amusements.
In modern rustic use chiefly pl. in sing. sense and often with sing. construction (cf. the double pl. wakeses, in 16th c. wakesses). The word is now current only in certain districts, mainly northern and west midland; elsewhere the equivalent term is feast or revels.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 314. Heo hefde ileaned one wummone to one wake on of hore weaden.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., 413/381. Formest he gan haunti wakes: and for compaygnie he wax a syutor of tauernes.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 28526. At wrestelyng, at wake, rengd haf i and folud wit lust all luchery.
1562. Child-Marriages (1897), 116. She had lent the crosse to a younge woman callid Anne Barker, to go to a weddinge or a wake.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. M 6. The maner of keeping of Wakesses, and feasts in Ailgna.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iii. 109. He haunts Wakes, Faires, and Beare-baitings.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. IV. i. (1624), 424. The very rusticks … Insteed of … Tilts, Turnaments, &c. they haue their Wakes, Whitson-ales, Shepherds feasts.
1633. Chas. I., Decl. Lawful Sports, 16. Wee finde … there hath been a generall forbidding … of the Feasts of the Dedication of the Churches, commonly called Wakes.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., III. xi. § 10. Vulgar Notions suit vulgar Discourses, and both … serve pretty well the Market and the Wake.
1695. Kennett, Par. Antiq., ix. 610. The institution of these Church Encænia or Wakes, was no question on good and laudable designs.
1711. Budgell, Spect., No. 161, ¶ 2. Had you stayed there a few Days longer you would have seen a Country Wake, which you know in most parts of England is the Eve-Feast of the Dedication of our Churches.
1778. Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Stretton, Here used to be a wake on the Sunday after All-Saints-day.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., II. ii. 75. Wrestling … at present is seldom seen except at wakes and fairs.
1861. Thackeray, Four Georges, ii. (1862), 97. Every town had its fair, every village its wake.
1879. ‘Ouida,’ Cecil Castlemaine, 9. Neither could she consort with gentry who seemed to her little better than the boors of a country wake.
1884. Manch. Exam., 2 Sept., 5/2. The wakes in more than one place in the district had closed the workshops.
1893. H. Vizetelly, Glances Back, I. x. 189–90. It chanced to be the annual wake or holiday at Castleton.
† c. transf. Applied to similar periodic festivals or revels of other countries or periods. Also occas. in pl., nocturnal revels. Obs.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist., Euseb., VIII. xxix. 171. About the thirde Nones of March, when the citizens of Cæsarea celebrated their wakes, vpon the day of reuells, Adrianus was throwen at the feete of a fierce lion.
1588. Fraunce, Lawiers Logike, I. xix. 66 b. Those men, saith Plato in Protagoras, that use the authoritie of others instead of argumente, of their owne, are like to seely soules of the country, when they keepe their wakes.
1634. Milton, Comus, 121. By dimpled Brook, and Fountain brim, The Wood-Nymphs … Their merry wakes and pastimes keep.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 89. And most honourable commemoration hath been made of you in all our innocent disorderly wakes [en toutes nos innocentes débauches].
¶ 5. Used by Hogg for: A serenade, nocturnal song.
(App. associated with WAIT sb. 7 b.)
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, Introd. (1814), 5. Those wakes now played by minstrels poor, At midnight’s darkest, chillest hour, Those humble wakes, now scorned by all, Were first begun in courtly hall. Ibid., ii. 139. The lake-fowl’s wake was heard no more; The wave forgot to brush the shore. Ibid., 336. So low has the characters of the minstrels descended, that the performers of the Christmas wakes are wholly unknown to the most part of those whom they serenade.
6. attrib. and Comb. (senses 3 and 4), as wake-feast, -game, -light, † -meat, † -play, Sunday, -week; also with plural, wakes time, week.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 207. The wine bottles were replenished, and the company gathered round to partake in eagerness of the first *wake-feast, a goodly number of which would follow the decease of the thus honoured and lamented individual.
1911. Kath. Tynan, P’cess Kath., ii. 22. It was enough to bring Tom Duncan out of his grave, to say nothing of the Nortons, to see the class of people who played *wake-games in his dining-room and drank his whisky.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, ii. (1814), 147. Her sail was the web of the gossamer’s loom, The glowworm her *wakelight.
1849. Whittier, Kathleen, 57. Get up, old man! the wake-lights shine!
a. 1400. Gloss., in Rel. Ant., I. 6. Obsonium, a *wakemete.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2102. Ne how that liche-wake was yholde Al thilke night, ne how the Grekes pleye The *wake pleyes, ne kepe I nat to seye.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 20 June, 6/1. The farmers … also keep an annual holiday which they call *Wake Sunday … on the first Sunday in August.
1863. Brierley, Waverlow, Trevor Hall, i. 17. They were the Waverlow church bells that were ringing, for it was *‘wakes’ time.
1870. ‘Ouida,’ Puck, I. vi. 105. It was *‘wake-week’ at a little town some twelve miles away.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., s.v. Wake, It is customary for friends from a distance to visit each other during *‘wakes week.’
7. Special comb.: † wake-day, the day on which a wake (senses 2, 4) was held; † wake-fire, a (? ceremonial) fire by which a night-watch was kept; wake-house, † (a) ? a house of vigil, or prayer; (b) Anglo-Irish (see quot. 1814); † wake-word = WATCH-WORD.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Esuriales feriæ, *wake dayes.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 181. To morow thy father his wake day will keepe. Then euerie wanton may daunce at hir will.
1598. Bp. Hall, Sat., V. ii. 107. Except the twelue-daies, or the wakeday-feast.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 596. Amongst Christians, the consecration, or wake-days of our churches.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 182. Anoþer ys of clene wod and no bonys, and ys callyd a *wakefyre, for men syttyth and wakyth by hyt.
1575–6. Durham Depos. (Surtees), 235. Beinge the awaike night, the said Percivall and Margarett the wyfe went to the waike fyere.
1677. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 308. This Church or *Wake House stands upon Ground Given to ye Church.
1814. W. S. Mason, Statist. Acc. Irel., I. 318. Whenever a person of any respectability dies, two wake houses are laid out, in one of which is placed the deceased,… in the other are assembled all the young people … who entertain themselves with every species of frolic and amusement.
1856. P. Kennedy, Banks Boro, xiv. (1867), 66. The wake-house drama of Old Dowd and his Daughters.
1510. Stanbridge, Vocabula (W. de W.), Diij b. Symbolum, a *wake worde.
