Bewake

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To watch; keep watch over; guard. obsolete, transitive
  2. 2
    To awaken thoroughly; keep awake. transitive
  3. 3
    To spend waking; watch through. transitive
  4. 4
    To keep awake; watch. intransitive
  5. 5
    To watch over (a body); observe funeral rites for. obsolete, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
wake

Etymology

From Middle English bewaken (“to watch”), from Old English bewacian (“to watch, keep watch over”), equivalent to be- + wake. Cognate with Dutch bewaken, German bewachen, Swedish bevaka, Danish bevåge.

Related phrases

funeral riteswatch over

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