awaken

Everyday

1. To wake up, or to wake someone up (a bit formal or story-like). tree →
2. To make a feeling, memory or interest start (The trip awakened her love of nature). tree →
3. To make someone realise something (awaken someone to a danger). tree →

In the lessons

Mostly in stories, poems and formal writing; in everyday talk people say «wake up». Science: animals awaken from hibernation in spring. «A rude awakening» means suddenly finding out something unpleasant.

Examples

• The princess awakened after a hundred years of sleep. tree →
• Bears awaken from hibernation when the weather warms. tree →
• The smell of pancakes awakened me. tree →
• The museum trip awakened his interest in fossils. tree →
• The film awakened people to the danger of plastic in the sea. tree →
• She had a rude awakening when she saw her test score. tree →
• Do not awaken the baby! tree →
• She was awakened in the morning by a great shout. tree →

Note

Regular verb: awakened. Similar verbs: wake (woke, woken), awake (awoke, awoken). «Awaken» sounds more formal or literary than «wake up». «Awake» can also be an adjective: I am awake.

In Jewish tradition

In the Song of Songs it means to rouse someone, especially love, before the right time.

Interpretation. Tradition reads the Song as a picture of God's love for Israel. The warning not to "awaken love until it please" is understood as a call to wait for God's time and not to force the redemption.

Examples

• 'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem: Why should ye awaken, or stir up love, until it please?' (Writings SNG.8.4, JPS 1917) tree →
• Under the apple-tree I awakened thee; there thy mother was in travail with thee; there was she in travail and brought thee forth. (Writings SNG.8.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• 'I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles, and by the hinds of the field, that ye awaken not, nor stir up love, until it please.' (Writings SNG.2.7, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Regular verb: awakened. Similar verbs: wake (woke, woken), awake (awoke, awoken). «Awaken» sounds more formal or literary than «wake up». «Awake» can also be an adjective: I am awake.