[Short for awaken, original pa. pple. of AWAKE v.; the full form occurs sporadically in 17th c.]
1. Roused from sleep, not asleep. Wide awake: thoroughly roused from sleep.
a. 1300. [see AWAKE v. 1 a.]
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 770. Men scarcely know, whether they be a wake or a sleepe.
1611. Bible, Luke ix. 32. When they were awake [not in earlier versions, nor elsewhere in 1611], they saw his glory.
1639. Slingsby, Diary (1836), 41. As she lay awaken in the night.
1820. Keats, St. Agnes, xxxiv. She still beheld Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep.
2. fig. In activity; vigilant, watchful, on the alert.
1618. Bolton, Florus (1636), 9. That … the flame preserved there alive, might ever keepe awake for safegard of the State.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., II. 682. Grudge his own rest, and keep the world awake.
1714. Addison, Spect., No. 580, ¶ 9. Such a Consideration should be kept awake in us at all times.
1800. Lett., in Trevelyan, Life Macaulay, I. i. 43. We want to have all our faculties awake.
b. To be awake to (anything): to be fully conscious of it, to appreciate it fully. Cf. alive.
1813. Miss Austen, Pride & Prej., xi. 48. As much awake to the novelty of attention in that quarter as Elizabeth herself.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, x. 109. He was awake to the dangers.
