wake

Etymology 1

A merger of two verbs of similar form and meaning: * Middle English waken, Old English wacan, from Proto-Germanic *wakaną. * Middle English wakien, Old English wacian, from Proto-West Germanic *wakēn, from Proto-Germanic *wakāną.

verb

1. (intransitive) (often followed by up) To stop sleeping.
   I woke up at four o'clock this morning.
2. (transitive) (often followed by up) To make somebody stop sleeping; to rouse from sleep.
   The neighbour's car alarm woke me from a strange dream.
3. (transitive, figurative) To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.
   Even Richard's crusade woke little interest in his island realm. 1880, John Richard Green, History of the English People
4. (intransitive, figurative) To be excited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
5. To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
   Dougal said that being alone with the dead on that floor of the tower (for naebody cared to wake Sir Robert Redgauntlet like another corpse) he had never daured to answer the call, but that now his conscience checked him for neglecting his duty; […] 1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet
6. To be or remain awake; not to sleep.
   , Book II, Chapter I I cannot think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.
7. (obsolete) To be alert; to keep watch
   Command unto the guards that they diligently wake.
8. (obsolete) To sit up late for festive purposes; to hold a night revel.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wake, from Old English wacu, from Proto-Germanic *wakō.

noun

1. (often obsolete or poetic) The act of waking, or state of being awake.
   After a few weeks of age, longer periods of sleep and wake are seen […] 2013, William H. Moorcroft, Understanding Sleep and Dreaming, page 27
2. The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.
3. A period after a person's death before or after the body is buried, cremated, etc.; in some cultures accompanied by a party and/or collectively sorting through the deceased's personal effects.
   Where any person has died whilst being, or suspected of being, a case or carrier or contact of an infectious disease, the Director may by order prohibit the conduct of a wake over the body of that person or impose such conditions as he thinks fit on the conduct of such wake […] 2003, Section 14(1)(a), Infectious Diseases Act (Cap. 137, R. Ed. 2003)
4. (historical, Church of England) A yearly parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking.
   1523–1525, Jean Froissart, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (translator), Froissart's Chronicles Great solemnities were made in all churches, and great fairs and wakes throughout all England.
5. A number of vultures assembled together.

Etymology 3

Probably from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch wake, from or akin to Old Norse vǫk (“a hole in the ice”) ( > Danish våge, Icelandic vök), from Proto-Germanic *wakwō (“wetness”), from Proto-Indo-European *wegʷ- (“moist, wet”).

noun

1. (nautical) The path left behind a ship on the surface of the water.
2. The movement of water created when an animal or a person moves through water.
3. (aviation) The turbulent air left behind a flying aircraft.
4. (figurative) The area behind something, typically a rapidly-moving object.
   This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions. 1826, Thomas De Quincey, “Lessing”, in Blackwood's Magazine
   It was all of a piece. If you believed in capitalism, you had to attack science, because science had revealed the hazards that capitalism had brought in its wake. 2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt
   Alex Song launched a long ball forward from the back and the winger took it down nicely on his chest. He cut across the penalty area from the right and after one of the three defenders in his wake failed to make a meaningful clearance, the Oxlade-Chamberlain was able to dispatch a low left-footed finish into the far corner. September 28, 2011, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport