wakel (wak)

[ Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep As is the difference betwixt day and night. Shak., 1 Hen. IV., iii. 1. 219. I have my desire, sir, to behold That youth and shape which in my dreams and wakes I have so oft contemplated. B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1. 2. The act of watching or keeping vigil, espe- cially for a solemn or festive purpose; a vigil; specifically, an annual festival kept in com- Pope , Imit. of Horace, I. i. 13. mem oration of the completion and dedication John the clerk, that waked hadde al nyght. Chaucer, Reeve's Tale, 1. 364. And, for my soul, I can not sleep a wink: I nod in company, I wake at night. IMG:content-2008.png:[blocks in formation] 2. To be excited or roused from sleep; cease to sleep; awake; be awakened: often followed by a redundant or intensive up. Look you, my lady 's asleep: she'll wake presently. Dekker and Webster , Northward Ho, iii. 1. 3. To keep watch; watch while others sleep; keep vigil; especially, to watch a night with a corpse. [Prov. Eng. ov. Eng. and Irish.] And they woke ther al that nyzt, With many torches & candle lyzt. King Horn (E. E. T. S.), p. 96. The people a embled on the vigil, or evening preceding the saint's-day, and came, says an old author, "to churche with candellys burnyng, and would wake , and come toward night to the church in their devocion," agreeable to the requisition contained in one of the canons established by king Edgar, whereby those who came to the wake were ordered to pray devoutly. Strutt , Sports and Pastimes, p. 469. 4. To be active; not to be quiescent. I sleep, but my heart waketh . To keep thy sharp woes waking . Cant. v. 2. Shak., Lucrece, L. 1136. IMG:content-2009.png:[blocks in formation] II. trans. 1. To rouse from sleep; awake; awaken: often followed by a redundant or intensive up . She hath often dreamed of unhappine and waked her self with laughing. Shak ., Much Ado, ii. 1. 361. She's asleep with her eyes open; pretty little rogue; I'll wake her and make her ashamed of it. Dekker and Webster , Northward Ho, iii. 2. 2. To watch by night; keep vigil with or over; especially, to hold a wake over, as a corpse. See wakel , n ., 3. And who that wil wake that Sparhauk 7 dayes and 7 nyghtes, and, as sume men seyn, 3 dayes and 3 uyghtes, with outen Companye and with outen Sleep, that faire Lady schal zeven him, whan he hat he don, the first Wy che that he wil wy che of erthely thinges. Mandeville, Travels, p. 145. IMG:content-2010.png:[blocks in formation] of a parish church; hence, a merrymaking; a festive gathering. The wake was kept by an all-night watch in Tents were erected the yard to supply refreshments to the crowd on the following day, which was kept as a holiday. Through the large attendance from neighboring parishes wakes, devotion and reverence gradually diminished, until they ultimately became mere fairs or markets, characterized by merrymaking and often disgraced by indulgence and riot. In popular usage this word has the same meaning as vigil. The wake or revel of country parishes was, originally, the day of the week on which the church had been dedicated; afterward, the day of the year. In 1536 an act of convocation appointed that the wake should be held in every parish on the same day, namely, the first Sunday in October; but it was disregarded. Wakes are expre ly mentioned in the "Book of Sports" of Charles I. among the feasts which should be observed. The wake appears to have been also held on the Sunday after the day of dedication; or, more usually, on the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. In Ireland it is called the patron day. Brand, Popular Antiquities. He is wit's pedler, and retails his wares At wakes and wa ails, meetings, markets, fairs. Shak ., L. L. L., v. ii. 318. Didsbury Wakes will be celebrated on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of August [1825]. The enjoyments consist chiefly of a -races, for purses of gold; prison-bar playing, and grinning through collars, for ale; and balls each evening. Quoted in Hone's Year Book , col. 958. 3. An all-night watch by the body of the dead, before burial. This custom seems to be of Celtic origin, and is now characteristic of Ireland, or of the Irish in other countries; but it was formerly observed in Scotland and Wales. It probably originated from a superstition that the body might be carried off by invisible spirits, or from a more rational fear of injury to it from wild beasts. In early literature it has the name of likewake, lichwake. The wake was originally a combination of mourning for the dead and rejoicing in his memory and for his deliverance, but in later times has often degenerated into a scene of wild grief and gro orgies. See likewake. How that the liche - wake was y-holde Al thilke night. Chaucer , Knight's Tale, 1. 2100. waker 3. A row of damp green gra . Encyc . Dict. [Prov. Eng.] wakeful (wak'fül), a. [Early mod. E. wake full ; -ful ; ful ; a late ME. form substituted for AS. wacol , wacul (= L. vigil ), vigilant, gilant, wakeful.] 1. Indisposed or unable to sleep; affected by insomnia. Two swains whom love kept wakeful and the Muse. Pope , Spring, 1. 18. And her clear trump sings succor everywhere By lonely bivouacs to the wakeful mind. Lowell, Commemoration Ode, ix. 2. Watchful; vigilant. Nor hundred eyes, Nor brasen walls, nor many wake full spyes. Intermit no watch Spenser, F. Q., III. ix. 7. Against a wakeful Foe. Milton , P. L., ii. 463. 3. Rousing from, or as from, sleep. The wakeful trump of doom must thunder through the deep. Milton, Nativity, 1. 156. =Syn. 1 and 2. See watchful. wakefully (wak'fül-i), adv. [