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."