Wake

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or festive purposes; a vigil.

(2): ( n.) The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being awake.

(3): ( n.) An annual parish festival formerly held in commemoration of the dedication of a church. Originally, prayers were said on the evening preceding, and hymns were sung during the night, in the church; subsequently, these vigils were discontinued, and the day itself, often with succeeding days, was occupied in rural pastimes and exercises, attended by eating and drinking, often to excess.

(4): ( v. t.) To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.

(5): ( v. t.) To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to reanimate; to revive.

(6): ( n.) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish.

(7): ( v. t.) To rouse from sleep; to awake.

(8): ( v. i.) To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.

(9): ( v. t.) To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.

(10): ( v. i.) To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.

(11): ( v. i.) To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.

(12): ( n.) The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army.

(13): ( v. i.) To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be awakened; to cease to sleep; - often with up.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

1: Γρηγορέω (Strong'S #1127 — Verb — gregoreo — gray-gor-yoo'-o )

translated "wake" in  1—Thessalonians 5:10 , is rendered "watch" in the RV marg., as in the text in  1—Thessalonians 5:6 , and the RV in the twenty-one other places in which it occurs in the NT (save  1—Peter 5:8 , "be watchful"). It is not used in the metaphorical sense of "to be alive;" here it is set in contrast with katheudo, "to sleep," which is never used by the Apostle with the meaning "to be dead" (it has this meaning only in the case of Jairus' daughter). Accordingly the meaning here is that of vigilance and expectancy as contrasted with laxity and indifference. All believers will live together with Christ from the time of the Rapture described in ch. 4; for all have spiritual life now, though their spiritual condition and attainment vary considerably. Those who are lax and fail to be watchful will suffer loss ( 1—Corinthians 3:15;  9:27;  2—Corinthians 5:10 , e.g.), but the Apostle is not here dealing with that aspect of the subject. What he does make clear is that the Rapture of believers at the second coming of Christ will depend solely on the death of Christ for them, and not upon their spiritual condition. The Rapture is not a matter of reward, but of salvation. See Watch.

King James Dictionary

Wake, G The primary sense is to stir, to rouse, to excite.

1. To be awake to continue awake to watch not to sleep.  Psalms 127 .

The father waketh for the daughter.

Though wisdom wakes, suspicion sleeps.

I cannot think any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

2. To be excited or roused from sleep to awake to be awakened. He wakes at the slightest noise. 3. To cease to sleep to awake. 4. To be quick to be alive or active. 5. To be excited from a torpid state to be put in motion. The dormant powers of nature wake from their frosty slumbers.

Gentle airs to fan the earth now wakd.

WAKE,

1. To rouse from sleep.

The angel that talked with me, came again and waked me.  Zechariah 4 .

2. To arouse to excite to put in motion or action.

Prepare war, wake up the mighty men.  Joel 3 .

The use of up is common, but not necessary.

To wake the soul by tender strokes of art.

3. To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death.

To second life wakd in the renovation of the just.

WAKE, n.

1. The feast of the dedication of the church, formerly kept by watching all night. 2. Vigils state of forbearing sleep.

--Their merry wakes and pastimes keep.

3. Act of waking. Old song.

Wake of a ship, the track it leaves in the water, formed by the meeting of the water, which rushes from each side to fill the space which the ship makes in passing through it.

To be in the wake of a ship, is to be in her track, or in a line with her keel.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Anglo-Saxon, waican, "to watch"), a holyday festival once universally held in England. In early times the day was considered as beginning and ending at sunset; and on the eve of the holyday worshippers repaired to the churches for worship, while the following day was spent in amusement. Each church, when consecrated, was dedicated to a saint, and on the anniversary of that day the parish wake was kept. In many places there was a second wake on the birthday of the saint, sometimes called Patron or Saint's Day. On these occasions the floor was strewed with rushes and flowers, and the altar and pulpit were decked with boughs and leaves. Crowds resorted to the wakes from neighboring parishes; hawkers or merchants were attracted by the crowds; and ultimately the wakes became mere fairs or markets little under the influence of the Church, and disgraced by scenes of indulgence and riot. The scandal of these scenes became so great that in 1285 Edward I passed a statute forbidding fairs and markets to be held in country churchyards. In 1448 Henry VI ordained that all showing of goods and merchandise except necessary victuals should be discontinued on the great festivals of the Church. In 1536, Henry VIII, by an .act of convocation, ordered the festival of the Saint's Day to be discontinued, and: that of the dedication of the church in all parishes to be the firsts Sunday in October. This gradually fell into desuetude, the Saint's Day being the more popular festival, and it still subsists in the form of a village wake.

Alyke-wake is a watching all night of a dead body by the friends and neighbors of the deceased. In Ireland, upon the death of one in humble circumstances, the body, laid out and covered with a sheet except the face, and surrounded with lighted tapers, is waked by the friends and neighbors. After vociferous lamentations, food and whiskey are indulged in, commonly leading to noisy and even riotous demonstrations. The custom, no doubt, originated in superstitious fear either of passing the night alone with a dead body or of its being interfered with by evil spirits.