Brewer's: Wake

To keep vigils. (Anglo-Saxon, waeccan.) A vigil celebrated with junketing and dancing.

“It may, therefore, be permitted them [the Irish] on the dedication day, or other solemn days of martyrs, to make them bowers about the churches, and refresh themselves, feasting together after a good religious sort; killing their oxen now to the praise of God and increase of charity, which they were wont before to sacrifice to the devil.” —Gregory the great to Melitus [Melitus was an abbot who came over with St. Augustine].

Related Content Allusions Foreign Words and Phrases Latin and Greek Word Elements Names: Their Origins and Meanings Old Testament Names Mythology Ancient Greek Literature & Mythology The Bible (King James version) The Koran (translation by J. M. Rodwell) Shakespeare's Plays Tales from Shakespeare (Charles and Mary Lamb) Frequently Misspelled Words Frequently Mispronounced Words Easily Confused Words Writing & Language