awaken

Etymology

From Middle English awakenen or awaknen, from Old English awæcnan or awæcnian, from a- plus wæcnan or wæcnian.

verb

1. (transitive) To cause to become awake.
   She awakened him by ringing the bell.
2. (intransitive) To stop sleeping; awake.
   Each morning he awakens with a smile on his face.
3. (transitive, figurative) To bring into action (something previously dormant); to stimulate.
   Awaken your entrepreneurial spirit!
   We hope to awaken your interest in our programme.
   I'll miss the sea. But a person needs new experiences. They draw something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. 1984, 20:05 from the start, in Dune (Science Fiction), →OCLC
4. (theology) To call to a sense of sin.
5. (rare) past participle of awake
   [This ant] I ſuffered to lye above an hour in the Spirit; and after I had taken it out, and put its body and legs into a natural poſture, remained moveleſs about an hour; but then , upon a ſudden, as if it had been awaken out of a drunken ſleep, it ſuddenly reviv'd and ran away... 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia
6. (transitive, figurative) To cause to become aware.
7. (intransitive, figurative) To become aware.
   I suddenly awoke to the possibilities of the new invention.