From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwakewake1 /weɪk/ ●●● S2 W3 (also wake up) verb (past tense woke /wəʊk $ woʊk/, past participle woken /ˈwəʊkən $ ˈwoʊ-/) [intransitive, transitive] WAKE UP/GET UPto stop sleeping, or to make someone stop sleeping When she woke, the sun was streaming through the windows. Try not to wake the baby.wake to Nancy woke to the sound of birds outside her window (=she heard birds singing when she woke). → wake up → wake up to something→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
wake• It was impossible to wake anyone in the house.• Then Mrs Dempster woke him as usual with a cup of tea, and he felt better.• But do not try to wake him into a higher level.• The windows of the house glowed suddenly bright, like the eyes of some monster waking in the dark.• Try not to wake the baby if you go in the bedroom.• Dad said he woke up at five this morning.• Fourteenth-century Wandsworth was waking up, deciding it could have another ten minutes, and turning over in its warm straw.• And he woke up with more than just his stomach growling.wakewake2 noun [countable] 1 → in the wake of something2 → in somebody’s/something’s wake3 MXthe time before or after a funeral when friends and relatives meet to remember the dead person4 TTW[usually singular] the track made behind a boat as it moves through the waterExamples from the Corpus
wake• On the way up, the slightest connection with the deceased or his family was enough reason to attend a wake.• But if Nader is having problems capturing the magical double-digit support level, his nearest third-party rivals are floundering in his wake.• In its wake, tens of thousands are slipping off, quietly once more, to sanctuaries abroad.• The interest in the sale comes in the wake of Durham County Council's decision to close eight of its homes.• Salomon discards a pay plan in the wake of a string of key departures.• In the wake of the Clause, the Stonewall Trust was set up.• In each half of the wake the eddy consists of two parallel vortex tubes of opposite sense.• I was like a water-skier without the skis, dragged through the wake of an uncompromising culture by my neck.Origin wake1 Old English wacan “to wake up” and wacian “to be awake” wake2 1. (1400-1500) Perhaps from Dutch wak or Middle Low German wake, from Old Norse vok “hole in the ice, especially as made by a boat”2. (1400-1500) → WAKE1 