woke up also waked up; woken up also waked up; waking up; wakes up
: awake entry 1, wake entry 1: such as
a
: to cease sleeping : to become awake
I woke up late this morning.
When I woke up on Monday the sky was the color of mercury, and the air was heavy with moisture.—
Ann M. Martin
Ann M. Martin
b
: to rouse (a person or animal) from or as if from sleep
The sound of a door slamming woke him up.
c
: to become aware or to make (someone) aware of something (such as an existing problem or danger)
They finally woke up and realized what was happening.
—usually used with toa study that woke people up to the importance of regular exercise
In 1997, … Jacob Nielsen predicted that if newspapers didn't wake up to the threat of online classified advertising and dominate the field by 1998, many of them would die within a decade.—Emily Benedek
Emily BenedekExamples of wake-up in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Jacqueline Dole, Travel + Leisure, 26 Apr. 2025
What Employers Can Do This is a wake-up call for employers to modernize identity verification and improve cyber-hiring resilience.
—Alonzo Martinez, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
Dan Fitzpatrick, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025
After waking up his wife in the middle of the night to take him to the emergency room, Carroll weighed himself.
—Gretchen Eichenberg, FOXNews.com, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wake-up
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Adjective
For instance, the process of securing lounge chairs on the beach can be a grueling task, necessitating a wake-up call before sunrise just to claim a prime spot.
—Jacqueline Dole, Travel + Leisure, 26 Apr. 2025
What Employers Can Do This is a wake-up call for employers to modernize identity verification and improve cyber-hiring resilience.
—Alonzo Martinez, Forbes.com, 25 Apr. 2025
Verb
These governments are waking up to the reality that AI literacy could become as important as reading and math.
—Dan Fitzpatrick, Forbes.com, 24 Apr. 2025
After waking up his wife in the middle of the night to take him to the emergency room, Carroll weighed himself.
—Gretchen Eichenberg, FOXNews.com, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for wake-up
Cite this Entry
“Wake-up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wake-up. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
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