DEFINITION
WAKE:
• (n.) The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any
track; as, the wake of an army.
• (v. i.) To be or to continue awake; to watch; not to sleep.
• (v. i.) To sit up late festive purposes; to hold a night revel.
• (v. i.) To be excited or roused from sleep; to awake; to be
awakened; to cease to sleep; -- often with up.
• (v. i.) To be exited or roused up; to be stirred up from a
dormant, torpid, or inactive state; to be active.
• (v. t.) To rouse from sleep; to awake.
• (v. t.) To put in motion or action; to arouse; to excite.
• (v. t.) To bring to life again, as if from the sleep of death; to
reanimate; to revive.
• (v. t.) To watch, or sit up with, at night, as a dead body.
• (n.) The act of waking, or being awaked; also, the state of being
awake.
• (n.) The state of forbearing sleep, especially for solemn or
festive purposes; a vigil.
• (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.
• (n.) The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended
with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish.