AWAKEN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does awaken mean? 

• AWAKEN (verb)
  The verb AWAKEN has 3 senses:

1. cause to become awake or conscious

2. stop sleeping

3. make aware

  Familiarity information: AWAKEN used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AWAKEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they awaken    ... he / she / it awakens   
Past simple: awakened   
Past participle: awakened   
-ing form: awakening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to become awake or conscious

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

arouse; awaken; rouse; wake; wake up; waken

Context example:

Please wake me at 6 AM.

Hypernyms (to "awaken" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "awaken"):

reawaken (awaken once again)

bring around; bring back; bring round; bring to (return to consciousness)

call (rouse somebody from sleep with a call)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Antonym:

cause to sleep (make fall asleep)

Derivation:

awakening (the act of waking)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stop sleeping

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

arouse; awake; awaken; come alive; wake; wake up; waken

Context example:

She woke up to the sound of the alarm clock

Hypernyms (to "awaken" is one way to...):

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

"Awaken" entails doing...:

catch some Z's; kip; log Z's; sleep; slumber (be asleep)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

awakening (the act of waking)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make aware

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Context example:

They were awakened to the sad facts

Hypernyms (to "awaken" is one way to...):

affect; impress; move; strike (have an emotional or cognitive impact upon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

 Context examples 

The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

And yet they awakened something in me, bringing promise to my heart.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The sands, last on-the-move more than 10,000 years ago, have awakened.

(Sleeping sands of the Kalahari awaken after more than 10,000 years, NSF)

I must awaken him, for there is work to be done.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It first occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep and is characterized by darting eyes, raised heart rates, paralyzed limbs, awakened brain waves and dreaming.

(The brain may actively forget during dream sleep, National Institutes of Health)

He found himself sitting on the edge of the bed and staring about him like an awakened somnambulist.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Instead of being awakened by a fire, you may fall into a deeper sleep.

(Fires, Federal Emergency Management Agency)

A condition in which a patient is in a state of deep sleep and cannot be awakened.

(Coma, NCI Dictionary)

About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in the house.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She went as before to look for him, but he slept, and it was impossible to awaken him.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)