Pa. t. awoke, formerly also awaked. Pa. pple. awoke and awaked. Forms: α. (1 awæcn-an, see below and cf. AWAKEN). Pa. t. 1–3 awóc, 3–4 awok, 4 awook, (6 Sc. awoik), 3– awoke. Pa. pple. 1 awacen, 3 awake, 7 awaken, (poet.) awoken, 8– awoke. β. 1 awaci-an, 3 awaki-en, awakie, 4 awaki, -ye, 4– awake, (5 Sc. awalk). Pa. t. 1 awacode, 3–9 awaked. Pa. pple. 1 awacod, 4– awaked. [In this, as in the simple WAKE, q.v., two early verbs are mixed up; the form-history being complicated with that of AWAKEN, as the sense-history is with that of AWECCHE. 1. For the intransitive vb., OE. has awæcnan, awóc, awacen, compound of wæcnan, wóc, wacen, the present stem having a formative -n-, wak-n-. (Cf. Goth. fraihn-an, frah, fraihans.) This present began already in OE. to be treated as a weak vb., with pa. t. awæcnede; whence mod.E. awaken, awakened. As the earliest texts have onwæcnan, the a- in later OE. was probably = on-, not A- pref. 1. 2. Late OE. had also a weak vb. awacian, awacode, in form a compound of wacian, wacode, to watch, keep awake, but in sense identical with awæcnan, and perhaps originating in a confusion of the two. This gave M. and mod.E. awake, awaked. 3. After the weak awakened came into common use, as pa. t. of AWAKEN, the original relation of awoke and its pa. pple. to that vb. became obscured; and later instinct, in accordance with the general analogies of the language, has referred them to AWAKE, treating them as strong equivalents of awaked. They are so included here. 4. Of all these forms the sense was in OE. only intrans. ‘to arise or come out of sleep,’ the transitive (causal) sense of ‘rouse from sleep’ being expressed by the derivative awęcc(e)an, ME. AWECCHE, Goth. uswakjan, mod.G. erwecken; but soon after 1100 awake began to be used in this sense also, and at length superseded awecche, which is not found after 1300. There has been some tendency, especially in later times, to restrict the strong pa. t. and pa. pple. to the orig. intrans. sense, and the weak inflexion to the trans. sense, but this has never been fully carried out. 5. The str. pa. pple. awaken was already in 13th c. reduced to awake, and at length became merely an adjective (mostly predicative), after which a new form from the pa. tense, awoken, later awoke was substituted; but the weak awaked is also in common use. (Shakespeare used only the weak inflexions.)] I. intr.
1. To come out of the state of sleep; to cease to sleep. (With pa. pple. belonging to the active voice, cf. come, gone, risen.) Cf. AWAKEN 1.
α. strong (pa. t. and pa. pple.).
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. ix. 24. He awóc of þam slǽpe.
c. 1205. Lay., 1254. Þæ awoc Brutus.
a. 1300. Judas, in Rel. Ant., I. 144. Sone so Judas of slepe was awake.
a. 1300. Oxf. Student, 61, in E. E. P. (1862), 42. Þe clerkes awoke anon.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XIII. Prol. 154. And I for feir awoik.
1611. Bible, Judg. xvi. 20. Hee awoke out of his sleepe.
1639. [see AWAKE a. 1].
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxix. I awoke to less trouble than that of my dreams.
β. weak (including the now ambiguous present).
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xlv. 26. Of hefeʓum slæpe awacode.
c. 1205. Lay., 17915. Late he gon awakien [1250 gan a-wakie].
c. 1305. St. Kenelm, in E. E. P. (1862), 56. Hi of Gloucestre schire: bigonne to awaki.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2183. Ryght in the dawynyng awakyth she.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XIX. 180. Ner frentik ich awakede.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xlv. 364. Þe goodman ful awaked was.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 1047. Awalk! It is no tyme to slep.
1611. Bible, Gen. xxviii. 16. And Jacob awaked out of his sleepe.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 3, ¶ 9. I was so transported with joy that I awaked.
1714. Pope, Rape Lock, I. 16. And sleepless lovers, just at twelve, awake.
1827. Jeffrey, Lett., 97, in Ld. Cockburn, Life. I shall come back to you like one of the sleepers awaked.
2. fig. To rise from a state resembling sleep, such as death, indifference, inaction; to become active or vigilant; to bestir oneself. (Used also of things personified.)
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, xxiii. 179. Anon as he owt of his thowht awook.
a. 1541. Wyatt, To my Lute, 1. My Lute awake.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. i. 78. Awake, awake, English Nobilitie! Let not slouth dimme your Honors.
1678. Crt. Spain, 17. They who were most concerned, awaked not.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 185, ¶ 14. Whenever he awakes to seriousness and reflection.
1842. H. E. Manning, Serm. (1848), I. 295. We feel as if we had awoke up to know that we had learned nothing really until now.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. v. 346. The national spirit again awoke.
3. To awake to (something): to become fully conscious of, to become ‘alive’ to.
[Cf. 1751 in sense 3.]
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 233. England and France at length awoke to the value of their fisheries.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 358. When they awoke to their danger.
4. To be or keep awake; to be vigilant, to watch. rare. (Cf. WAKE.)
1602. Fulbecke, 2nd Pt. Parall., 26. The Græcians did manie times sleep, when the Romanes did awake.
II. trans. (taking place of earlier AWECCHE.).
5. trans. To arouse (any one) from sleep.
α. weak (and ambiguous present).
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 238. Ich wolde awakien þe.
c. 1250. Old Kent. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 32. Hise deciples … a-wakede hine.
1340. Ayenb., 128. Þe angle þet awakede zaynte Petren.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. I. 213. And ȝe, route of ratons · of rest men a-wake.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1761/2. Shogged her dame, and with much adoe awaked her.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 792. No dreadful Dreams awak’d him with affright.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, I. i. If you awaked her.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 6. Where morning’s earliest ray Might strike it, and awake her with the gleam.
β. strong. rare.
c. 1435. Torr. Portugal, 146. Hys hornys blast awoke hyme nowght.
1526. Tindale, Matt. viii. 25. His disciples came vn to him, and awoke hym sayinge: master save vs. [So 1611.]
1879. Tennyson, Lover’s T., 62. Owl-whoop and dorhawk-whirr Awoke me not.
6. fig. To rouse from a state resembling sleep; to stir up, excite, make active. Cf. AWAKEN.
1340. Ayenb., 128. Þe holy gost awakeþ þane zeneȝere.
1563. Homilies, II. xi. Almsdeeds, i. (1859), 382. God’s people should awake their sleepy minds.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. i. 26. He will awake my mercie.
1766. Goldsm., Vic. W., xix. I was soon awaked from this disagreeable reverie.
1793. Southey, Tri. Wom., 380. Such strains awake the soul to loftiest thoughts.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, II. xvii. But morning beam, and wild bird’s call, Awaked not Mortham’s silent hall.
β. a. 1400. St. Alexius (Laud 622), 57. A man of grete pouste, Þat mychel mirþe a wook.
1633. P. Fletcher, Elisa, II. xlv. Down dead she fell; and once again awoken, Fell once again.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxxi. In a fashion which awoke the ire of the Lieutenant.
† 7. refl. To rouse oneself from sleep or inaction. Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 25556. Þa þe King him awoc swiðe, he wes idræcched.
1488. Caxton, Chast. Goddes Chyld., 33. A slowe wyll is towched wyth a stroke of our lorde to awake him.
