wakeup
Pluralwakeups
- 1The act of waking from sleep, or a single occasion of waking.
After a groggy wakeup, he stumbled to the kitchen for coffee.
New parents quickly get used to frequent nighttime wakeups.
Similarawakening
Note
The noun is made from the verb phrase wake up, and the spelling marks the difference: written solid, or hyphenated as wake-up, it names the event, as in an early wakeup; written as two words it is the verb, as in I wake up at six. It counts freely, so new parents talk about frequent nighttime wakeups.
- 2An occasion of being woken by someone or something, such as a call arranged to wake a person at a set time.
She booked a 5:30 wakeup with the front desk so she wouldn't miss her flight.
A garbage truck under the window gave us an unwelcome wakeup at dawn.
Similarawakening
Note
Here someone else does the waking, which is what sets it apart from waking on your own: give me a wakeup around six asks another person for a knock or a call. In hotels it serves as the short form of wake-up call, booked with the front desk for a set time.
- 3The northern flicker, the bird Colaptes auratus.
A wakeup was hammering at the dead elm behind the barn.
Every spring a pair of wakeups nests in the hollow fence post by the road.
Similarflicker
Practice
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Origin
Formed from the verb wake up.