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Glite Dictionary
to wake up with the blues

to wake up with the blues

8.4
To feel sad in the morning for no clear reason
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : despertar triste
  • Some days I just wake up with the blues and can't seem to shake the feeling.

Examples

  • She often wakes up with the blues on Mondays.

  • When you wake up with the blues, it's good to take a walk outside to lift your mood.

  • He tends to wake up with the blues during the winter months.

  • I woke up with the blues this morning.

  • Some days I just wake up with the blues and can't seem to shake the feeling.

  • When you wake up with the blues, it's good to take a walk outside to lift your mood.

  • She often wake up with the blues on Mondays.

Synonyms

to feel down
vsto wake up with the blues
15 3.0

Be sad or unhappy

is sad especially in the morning rather than at random moments
to feel blue
vsto wake up with the blues
  • Informal
12 6.5

To be sad for a short time

is sadness tied to mornings rather than a lasting spell
to have the blues
vsto wake up with the blues
3 7.0

Feel sad and a little down

is sad mainly in the morning rather than at other times

Antonyms

to cheer up
  • Informal
234 1.4

To feel happier after being sad or to make someone feel happier

How Sad

in tears
64 2.0
to wake up with the blues
  • Informal
8.4

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

wake + up + with + the + blues

The meaning is directly composed from 'wake' + 'up' (to stop sleeping) plus the prepositional pattern 'with the X' indicating an accompanying state; 'the blues' = short-term sadness, so the phrase means to wake and feel sad. This construction is analogous to transparent phrases like 'wake up with a headache' and would be predictable to a B1 learner who knows all the constituent words.

Etymology

The idiom wake up with the blues comes from the word blues, a kind of music about sadness, and the words wake up to show the feeling starts in the morning. So it means 'to feel sad when you wake up'.