woke
adjective
- liberal or progressive
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /wəʊk/ / /woʊk/ / /wəʉk/
adj
Etymology: Shortened from woken or woken up, or derived from dialectal use of woke (past participle of wake). The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s. The derogatory use has been most commonly used as of the 2020s.
- Awake: conscious and not asleep.
- Alert, aware of what is going on, or well-informed, especially of racial and other social justice issues.
“Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer.”
“If You’re Woke You Dig It [title]”
- Holding progressive views or attitudes, principally with regard to social justice.
“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.”
“Like, if I tweet or hashtag about how you didn’t do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself, cause, "Man, you see how woke I was, I called you out." That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change.”
- Promoting cancel culture, identitarianism, pontification, victim mentality, or virtue signalling.
“The famous author of Harry Potter, J K Rowling, found herself at the centre of a woke storm after liking a tweet by Maya Forstater, who lost her job in 2019 after tweeting that “male people are not women”. The reaction was immediate, with some accusing Forstater of “killing trans people with her hate” for simply expressing an opinion.”
“Many on the ‘woke right’ who for some time have spoken against cancel culture, have chosen to embrace a version of their own, boycotting companies that support progressive causes, for example. The overwhelming support for DeSantis’ fight against Disney in Florida is one such illustration. The boycott of Bud Light over the company’s paid promotional social media posts using trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney is another.”
noun
Etymology: Shortened from woken or woken up, or derived from dialectal use of woke (past participle of wake). The sense of being aware of social injustice dates to at least the 1930s. The derogatory use has been most commonly used as of the 2020s.
- A person with progressive views or attitudes.
“Not to beat a dead horse, but it would appear that the wokes are in an abusive relationship with the speech policemen, given that some of their favored terms are being abruptly disallowed (like trigger warning or “preferred” pronouns).”
- A progressive ideology, in particular with regards to social justice.
“Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London, said the war on woke kicked off as a counter to the “silent revolution” of liberal and progressive attitudes during the economic boom of the decades up to 2008.”
“The woke is the new religion of the left.”
verb
Etymology: See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
- simple past of wake
- past participle of wake
“[…] have woke out of dreams, mayhap in which the beloved was smiling on you, whispering love-words-oh! how sweet and fondly remembered!”
“It has its tempers and its gentle moods. Yesterday it slept as we did, and now it has woke after a quiet night.”