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Glite Dictionary
to wake up

to wake up

∞ 1.0
To stop sleeping or make someone else stop sleeping
  • phrasal verb
  • /weɪk ʌp/
translation icon : despertarse
  • Every morning, I wake up at six o'clock to start my day.
  • wake up every morning
  • wake up early
  • wake up at night

Almost going to prison woke me up really good.

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Examples

  • Whatever you do, wake up all my neighbors, okay?

    Bloodletting (1997)

  • The next morning, my dad woke me up with as much enthusiasm as a ten-year-old at Christmas.

    Academic text (2000)

  • And when we do wake up, what now?

    Shawn Ryan Show

  • I just, when you wake up, you feel incredible.

    Jay Shetty Podcast

  • You know, when you just wake up and you just feel great?

  • So OK, when you wake up, what is your good morning?

    The Drew Barrymore Show

  • Usually, as soon as I wake up, I get out of bed and get going.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • This morning I woke up and I'm sick.

  • Good morning, I woke up with a headache again.

  • Life is too short to wake up with regrets.

Synonyms

to wake
vsto wake up
∞ 1.0

To stop sleeping or make someone else stop sleeping

is the two-word phrasal everyday form for the same action
to get up
vsto wake up
221 1.0

To make someone leave their bed or stand up

stops sleep or causes alertness but not the rising action
to awake
vsto wake up
107 1.0

To stop sleeping or make someone stop sleeping

is the two-word phrasal everyday form for the same action
to awaken
vsto wake up
73 1.8

To stop sleeping or make someone else wake up

is the two-word phrasal everyday form for the same action
to rouse
vsto wake up
28 3.4

To wake someone up and make them alert after sleep

stops sleep without stressing activity after rest
to arouse
vsto wake up
9 3.5

Make someone wake up or feel more energetic

stops sleep without implying extra energy or excitement
to waken
vsto wake up
5 3.0

To stop sleeping or make someone stop sleeping

is the two-word phrasal everyday form for the same action

Antonyms

to fall asleep
376 1.0

To start sleeping

How Awake

to rouse
28 3.4
to wake up
∞ 1.0
to awaken
73 1.8
to stir
75 1.0

Surface Forms

wake up infinitive
waking up present participle
wakes up third person singular
woke up past
woken up past participle

Morphology

wake + up

The meaning 'to stop sleeping and become awake' (or to cause someone to do so) is directly and transparently derived from combining 'wake' (to bring someone out of sleep) with 'up' (not asleep/out of bed), following the common English verb + particle composition. This is a cross-linguistically common and literal pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Wake up comes from the simple picture of a person who opens their eyes and then sits or stands up. The verb wake is to stop sleeping and up shows the move into an active, upright state, so wake up means 'to stop sleeping' or 'to make someone alert'.