Wake sb.²

Also 6 ? walk, 7 wack. [Not found before the 16th c., but possibly much older; either directly or mediately a. ON. (*vaku) vǫk str. fem., vaka wk. fem., hole or opening in ice. The ON. word was probably applied to the path made for itself by a vessel through ice, and from this use the sense ‘trace or track of a vessel in the water’ may have been developed by Scandinavian navigators in British seas. Sense 5, ‘line of hay,’ if it really belongs to the same word, may be a transferred use of the nautical sense.

  The word is represented in all the Scandinavian dialects, and has been adopted in Du., Fris., and Ger. The sense ‘track of a vessel’ is found, outside Eng., only in Norw. vok (dial. vaak), NFris. (Sylt) waak; the older sense, ‘hole or channel in ice’ (sometimes, ‘a piece of water kept unfrozen by wind or current’) belongs to MSw. vaak, vak, Sw. vak (cf. Sw. vācka to cut a hole in ice), Norw. vok, Da. vaage, WFris. wek, wjek(ke, Du. wak neut. MLG., LG. (whence mod.G.) wake fem.

  The word is commonly supposed to be connected with ON. vǫk,-r Du. wak, moist, damp: see WAK a. This view involves some difficulty, as the ON. adj. has the stem vǫkv-, while the sb. has genit. vakar, pl. vakar, -ir. Connection with WAKE a. and v. seems not impossible: the freeing of the water from ice may have been regarded as an awakening.]

  I.  1. The track left on the water’s surface by a ship (in the sea often marked by a smooth appearance).

[a. 1547:  see 4 a.]

1627.  Capt. J. Smith, Sea Gram., ix. 42. The wake of a ship is the smooth water a sterne shewing the way shee hath gone in the sea.

1703.  Dampier, Voy., III. I. 97. In the Wake of the Ship (as ’tis call’d) or the Smoothness which the Ship’s passing has made on the Sea.

1768–74.  Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 412. The wake of a ship, (by which, I think, the sailors understand the stream drawn after the stern by its motion,) follows the ship throughout her voyage.

1820.  W. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Regions, II. 240. An ‘eddy’ having somewhat the resemblance of the ‘wake’ or track of a ship.

1852.  Clough, Poems, ‘Where lies the land,’ 8. Or, o’er the stern reclining, watch below The foaming wake far widening as we go.

1861.  Dickens, Gt. Expect., liv. Both steamers were drifting away from us, and we were rising and falling in a troubled wake of water.

1882.  W. H. White, Naval Archit. (ed. 2), 553. The actual wake of a ship combines the stream line motions with those due to the frictional drag of the skin upon the water.

1913.  Engl. Rev., Nov., 506. Her wake was without foam and closed sluggishly behind her.

  attrib.  1865.  MacGregor, ‘Rob Roy’ Baltic, 229. A canoe was pulled at a rapid pace in the two wake waves astern of this great smack.

1909.  Bridges, Paraphr. Virg. Æn. VI, 342. What God … Pluckt you away and drown’d i’ the swift wake-water abandon’d?

  † b.  Phrases. To fetch (get, get into, have) the wake of (a pursued vessel): to get so close to her as to be able to see, and steer by, her wake. To stay a weather of a wake: see quot. 1706.

1644.  Manwayring, Sea-mans Dict., 113. In chaseing they say, we have got her wake, that is, we are got as far into the wind as she, and so goe right after her as she goes.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 19. The Chase is about, come fetch her wack, and we will be about after her. We sail far better than she; we have her Wack.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v., A Ship is said To stay a Weather of a Wake, when in her Staying she does it so speedily, that she don’t fall to the Leeward, but that when she is tacked, her Wake is to the Leeward; which is a sure Sign that she feels her Helm well, and is nimble of Steerage. When a Ship being in Chace of another, has got as far into the Wind as she, and sails directly after her; the usual Saying is, That she has got into her Wake.

1748.  Anson’s Voy., III. viii. 377. About noon the Commodore was little more than a league from the galeon, and could fetch her wake, so that she could not now escape.

  2.  transf. Anything compared to the wake of a vessel. a. The disturbance caused by a body swimming, or moved, in water.

1753.  Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1840, V. 338. There were numbers of visible animalcules; but I was sure there were likewise some which I could not see; for the wake they made in swimming to and fro was very visible.

1818.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 561. He [sc. the whale] swims with an astonishing swiftness … leaving a track in the sea, like a great ship; and this is called his wake.

1845.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. (1879), 39. The tracks of the penguins were marked by a fiery wake.

1891.  A. Lang, Angling Sk., 68. The dry fly is difficult to use on a loch, as there is no stream to move it; and however gently you draw it, it makes a ‘wake’—a trail behind it.

  b.  The air-currents behind a body in flight.

1851.  Rossetti, Sister Helen, viii. Outside it’s merry in the wind’s wake,… In the shaken trees the chill stars shake.

1870.  N. F. Hele, Aldeburgh, vii. 7. The only chance of safety for the rook appeared to be his getting directly in the ‘wake’ of the falcon, and by this means the bird escaped for a long time.

1891.  Spectator, 28 Feb. The probable object of the wedge-formation when advancing against the wind is, that each bird avoids the ‘wake’ of its neighbour.

1913.  Rutland Daily Herald, 31 May, 1/4. A tail of yellow circulars fluttered in the aeroplane’s wake.

  c.  A trail of light behind a luminous object (in motion), or its broken reflection in water. Also fig.

a. 1711.  Ken, Prepar., Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 74. Fly up, my Soul, along the Wake, Which down from Fontal Love they make, No Lover led by Love’s sweet Ray ’Ere lost his Way.

1819.  Montgomery, Greenland, I. 14. The pageant glides through loneliness and night, And leaves behind a rippling wake of light.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, III. 1. Morn in the white wake of the morning star Came furrowing all the orient into gold.

1889.  Stevenson, In South Seas, II. ii. (1900), 152. The harbour lantern and two of the greater planets drew vari-coloured wakes on the lagoon.

1906.  E. A. Abbott, Silanus, xxv. 237. They depart. There is a momentary wake of light. It disappears. Then we have to wait for a new torchbearer.

  d.  A track or trail on land. rare.

1851.  Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, xi. Twice or thrice … a water-cart went along by the Pyncheon-house, leaving a broad wake of moistened earth.

1888.  Stevenson, Black Arrow, V. iv. Thus they had left a wide, discoloured wake upon the snow.

  3.  A course, or general line of direction, that a ship has taken, or is to take.

c. 1595.  Capt. Wyatt, R. Dudley’s Voy. W. Ind. (Hakl. Soc.), 52. Wee … altered that course and bare for the coste of Florida … to lie in the wake of the feet of the West Indies bounde for Spaine.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 190. They were … quite out of the wake of the Bermudas.

1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. v. 279. And from the shore to swifter wakes The willing sea the vessels takes.

  4.  In the wake of.

  a.  Naut. or quasi-nautical. In the wake of (a vessel); in her (its) wake, etc.: immediately behind, and (properly) in the actual track made by, a vessel; immediately backward and along the track made. Also used of any person or persons aboard, as in his, our, etc., wake; behind his, our, etc., vessel.

a. 1547.  MS. Harl. 309, f. 4. No ship to ride in another’s walk.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v., A ship is said to be in the wake of another, when she follows her on the same track.

1839.  trans. Lamartine’s Trav., 22/1. The frigate, which has us in tow, hollows out ahead of us a level and murmuring path, along which we glide in her wake.

1847.  Prescott, Peru (1850), II. 323. [They] fell on his little troop whenever he attempted to land, and followed in his wake for miles in their canoes.

1898.  F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ 193. The Mysticetus’ best point of view is right behind, or ‘in his wake,’ as we say.

  b.  Naut. in transferred uses: (a) In the direct line aft from (any object on board ship, or any specified part of her). Usually in wake of. (b) In the line of sight of (an observed object). (c) In the line of recoil of (a gun).

  (a)  1711.  W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 44. The Timbers to be equally scarfed, the Middle of one Timber being in the Wake of the Head and Heels of the others.

1745.  P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 138. We found our own Main-top-mast sprung in the wake of the Cap.

1869.  Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., i. 5. The bottom was strengthened by doubling the whole of the inner plates up to the turn of the bilge for 50 feet in wake of the engines.

1879.  W. H. White, Ship-Build., in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 61/1. These longitudinal tie-plates form excellent strengthenings to the deck in wake of the principal hatchways.

1896.  Daily News, 4 Nov., 2/4. The deck, which was also found to be started in the wake of the mast.

  (b)  1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), s.v., Two distant objects observed at sea are called in the wake of each other, when the view of the furthest is intercepted by the nearest.

  (c)  c. 1860.  H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 69. They give … support to the beams in the wake of the guns.

1874.  Thearle, Naval Archit., xviii. § 288. 303. In the wake of the explosion of the heavy guns, as at the embrasures, etc., the whole of the frames are of the larger size.

  c.  transf. and fig. (a) With nautical metaphor (often jocular): Following close behind (a person compared to a ship). (b) In wider use (cf. 2): In the train or track of, behind (a moving person or object); in imitation of; following as a result or consequence.

  (a)  1806.  Cumberland, Mem., 114. A great man in office is like a great whale in the ocean; there will be a sword-fish and a thresher, a Junius and a John Wilkes, ever in his wake and arming to attack him.

1822.  W. Irving, Braceb. Hall, ii. 19. He was swept off in the vortex that followed in the wake of this lady.

1849.  Miss Mulock, Ogilvies, ii. She found herself … following in the wake of her stately parents.

1901.  Meredith, Reading of Life, 1.

  (b)  1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xlv. Night, when carts came rumbling by, filled with rude coffins…; when orphans cried, and distracted women shrieked and followed in their wake.

1866.  Mrs. H. Wood, St. Martin’s Eve, v. Such love does not bring peace in its wake.

1875.  Merivale, Gen. Hist. Rome, lxxx. (1877), 683. Wealth followed in the wake of traffic.

1877.  Black, Green Past., xxxii. 256. Brown dust that came rolling in the wake of our carriage.

1894.  H. Drummond, Ascent of Man, 214. [A man], when he talks of the hum of machinery or the boom of the cannon,… is following in the wake of the inventors of Language.

1911.  G. Macdonald, Roman Wall Scot., x. 351. We have here a proof that Eastern traders had found their way as far north as the Caledonian frontier in the wake of the Roman army.

  II.  5. A line of hay prepared for carting. dial.

1847.  Halliwell, Wake, hay placed in large rolls for the convenience of being carried. West. Ibid., Wakes, rows of green damp grass.

1872–4.  Jefferies, Toilers of Field (1892), 259. The waggon safely jolted over the furrow, and on between the wakes of light-brown hay. Ibid. (1879), Wild Life in S. Co., vii. 143. Watching that the ‘wallows’ may be turned over properly, and the ‘wakes’ made at a just distance from each other.

  III.  6. An open hole, or unfrozen place in the ice. dial. (East Anglia.)

1895.  P. H. Emerson, Birds, etc. Norf. Broadland, II. xiii. 379. I passed a ‘wake’—or open space in the ice—where the swans were swimming like sentries on duty.