awakening
/əˈweɪkənɪŋ
/noun
1 formal An act of waking from sleep: since my awakening I had realized it was a very special day...
- In about 50% of laboratory awakenings from slow wave sleep some sort of subjective experience is reported.
- The most frequently encountered secondary sleep disturbances are night awakenings and bedtime resistance, which occur most commonly in toddlers and preschool-aged children.
- Of that number, 38 percent had taken longer than 80 minutes to fall asleep in the lab and 51 percent had lost substantial sleep due to nighttime awakenings.
2An act or moment of becoming suddenly aware of something: the war came as a rude awakening to the hardships of life...
- He adds that primary one, with its desks and pencils, can come as a rude awakening to children used to playing with sand, water and paint.
- It's a rude awakening to the public sector for me.
- The wife got herself a rude awakening to the fact that the times have changed, and that some good food and a good heart don't get you anywhere any longer.
2.1The beginning or rousing of something: her sexual awakening the awakening of vigorous political debate...
- The decade also saw the beginnings of a political awakening whose form reflected the domination of the country's intellectual tendencies by Egypt.
- For me, and I imagine for many others, it was the beginning of a political awakening.
- But memories of prior political awakenings that ended disastrously were revived when the Polish military cracked down in 1981.
Synonyms
arousal, rousing, triggering off, stirring up, kindling, stimulation, inspiration, birth;
revival
adjective
Coming into existence or awareness: his awakening desire an awakening conscience...
- Anyway, so I pictured Prince's ‘courtyard’ as a semi-magical place of awakening desire.
- Cassandra is sharp as a tack, awkward, and still young enough to greet her awakening desire and finer perceptions with astonishment and hyperbole.
- The kind of awakening horror of what I had become was about 10 years later.