# wake up

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/wake-up
Updated: 2026-08-08

## Senses

### 1. to stop sleeping

phrasal verb · CEFR A1

to stop sleeping and open your eyes.

For teachers: to cease sleeping and return to a state of consciousness. The verb is intransitive in this sense.

- I usually wake up at six o'clock, but I stay in bed for ten minutes.
- He tended to wake up several times during the night, often struggling to return to a deep sleep before his alarm rang at dawn.

### 2. to rouse someone else

phrasal verb · CEFR A1

to make someone else stop sleeping.

For teachers: to rouse someone from sleep. This use is transitive and the object can be placed between 'wake' and 'up'.

- Please be quiet so you don't wake the baby up.
- The sunlight streaming through the gap in the curtains eventually woke him up, despite his intention to sleep until noon.

## Examples

- I wake up at 7 a.m. every day.
- The loud thunder during the storm last night woke up the entire family.
- After the long flight, I was so tired that not even the hotel's blaring fire alarm was loud enough to wake me up.

## Usage notes

- Teaching tip: Contrast with 'get up' (to leave bed); a person can wake up but decide to stay in bed for a while before they get up.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.