Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Woke

Woke

,
imp.
&
p.
p.
Wake
.

Definition 2024


woke

woke

English

Verb

woke

  1. simple past tense and past participle of wake

Adjective

woke

  1. (dialect, African American Vernacular or slang) Awake: not asleep.
  2. (US, slang) Alert and aware of what is going on, especially in social justice contexts.
    • 2014, Lynn Sweeting, WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, volume 7:
      [] stay woke[,] people of color,
      let us occupy this dissent
    • 2016, Ross Douthat, "A Playboy for President," The New York Times, 14 Aug.
      "But the cultural conflict between these two post-revolutionary styles — between frat guys and feminist bluestockings, Gamergaters and the diversity police, alt-right provocateurs and woke dudebros, the mouthbreathers who poured hate on the all-female 'Ghostbusters' and the tastemakers who pretended it was good — is likely here to stay."