Definition of "woke"

Waking up is a damn sight harder than going to sleep, but we’ll stay woke up longer.

1942, J. Saunders Redding, Negro Digest, volume 01

If You’re Woke You Dig It [title]

1962 May 20, William Melvin Kelley, “If You’re Woke You Dig It”, in The New York Times‎, page 45

I been sleeping all my life. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, I’m gon stay woke. And I’m gon help him wake up other black folk.

1972, Barry Beckham, Garvey Lives!

What if there was no niccas / Only master teachers? / I stay woke (dreams dreams)

2008, Erykah Badu (lyrics and music), “Master Teacher”, in New Amerykah Part One (4th World War)

[…] stay woke[,] people of color, / let us occupy this dissent

2014, Lynn Sweeting, WomanSpeak, A Journal of Writing and Art by Caribbean Women, volume 7

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.

2016 August 14, Ross Douthat, “A Playboy for President”, in The New York Times‎

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.

2019 October 29, Emily S. Rueb, Derrick Bryson Taylor, quoting Barack Obama, “Obama on Call-Out Culture: ‘That’s Not Activism’”, in The New York Times‎

If this were actually true, you would expect real traction for the wokest candidates in the Democratic presidential race. But it’s been just the opposite. The woke candidates have been the weakest, electorally speaking, and the defining attribute of the Democratic primary has been a preoccupation with the voters that put Trump in the White House.

2019 December 6, Jamelle Bouie, “Why the ‘Wokest’ Candidates Are the Weakest”, in The New York Times‎

[Kevin Smith is] also baffled by some of the accusations that he tried to make the franchise “woke” by focusing on Teela.

2021 July 26, Lauren Sarner, “Kevin Smith on ‘Masters of the Universe’ and fan backlash”, in New York Post‎

Rightwing Tory MPs should stop portraying concerns over the climate and nature as “woke”, and understand that voters are deeply concerned about the crisis, the Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith has warned.

2022 November 15, Fiona Harvey, quoting Zac Goldsmith, “‘Stupid’ to equate climate concerns with being woke, says Zac Goldsmith”, in The Guardian‎

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).

2022 December 21, Judson Berger, “You Can’t Say That at Stanford”, in National Review‎

The woke is the new religion of the left.

2022, Ron DeSantis, speech at CPAC 2022

[…] have woke out of dreams, mayhap in which the beloved was smiling on you, whispering love-words-oh! how sweet and fondly remembered!

1860 January–June, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “Miss Prior is Kept at the Door”, in Lovel the Widower, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1861, page 56

It has its tempers and its gentle moods. Yesterday it slept as we did, and now it has woke after a quiet night.

1873, Jules Verne, “Four Thousand Leagues under the Pacific”, in [anonymous], transl., Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas; […], James R. Osgood edition, Boston, Mass.: Geo[rge] M[urray] Smith & Co., part I, page 96

What time did you wake up, and what woke you so flamin' early on a Sunday morning? Something must have woke you. The alarm clock?

2007 November 10, Joy Dettman, One Sunday‎, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 184