Ake

//eɪk// adv, name, noun, verb

adv, name, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Obsolete spelling of ache. alt-of, obsolete

    "The ake of months of a growing firenlust became a rising queem til at last there was the burst of loosing that almost made his knees buckle."

  2. 2
    The groove made in a stone forming part of a killock. Cornwall, obsolete

    "Returning with the timber portions of his anchor, to the stone, he would assemble all together […] The ake would be the slightly hollowed part of the stone that fitted closely to the sides […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    Obsolete spelling of ache. alt-of, obsolete

    "... for let our finger ake, / And it endues our other heathfull members — Othello (Quarto 1), Shakespeare, 1622"

Adverb
  1. 1
    forever New-Zealand, not-comparable

    "The answer given was : — " Friends, this is the reply of the Maori : we shall fight on ake, ake, ake, for ever, for ever, for ever.""

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A Nigerian Plateau language.

Synonyms

All synonyms
aikeaike

Example

More examples

"... for let our finger ake, / And it endues our other heathfull members — Othello (Quarto 1), Shakespeare, 1622"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English aken, from Old English acan (“to ache”), from Proto-West Germanic *akan, from Proto-Germanic *akaną (“to ache”). More at ache.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Māori ake.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.