See wake up and smell the coffee in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Probably a humorous elaboration of wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”), alluding to the fact that coffee is often consumed at breakfast time after waking up in the morning. The term was popularized by the American writer Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer (1918–2002), who used the pen name Ann Landers, in the syndicated newspaper advice column Ask Ann Landers.",
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"form": "wakes up and smells the coffee",
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{
"form": "waking up and smelling the coffee",
"tags": [
"participle",
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},
{
"form": "woke up and smelled the coffee",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "woke up and smelt the coffee",
"tags": [
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "woken up and smelled the coffee",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
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"form": "woken up and smelt the coffee",
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"name": "en-verb"
}
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"wake"
],
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
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102,
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"ref": "1927 June 4, Purist [pseudonym], “Smelling the coffee [letter]”, in John S[hivley] Knight, editor, Akron Beacon Journal, number 157, Akron, Oh.: Beacon Journal Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 5:",
"text": "Your paper gains \"notice\" as an example of the use of English as it should not be written nor spoken. Wake up and smell the coffee.",
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"ref": "1943 January 18, Guy Finamore, “Rationing dept.”, in Chicago Daily Tribune, volume CII, number 15, Chicago, Ill.: Wheeler, Stewart & Scripps, →OCLC, page 17, column 2:",
"text": "A few years back, when a wife told her husband to \"wake up and smell the coffee,\" it usually was said in utter derision. Now, when there is coffee to smell, she shouts it to him in supreme delight.",
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"ref": "1970 November 29, Ann Landers [pseudonym; Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer], “Wake up, smell the coffee”, in The News & Observer, volume CC, number 152, Raleigh, N.C.: News & Observer Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, section III (Today’s Woman), page 20, column 4:",
"text": "Wake up and smell the coffee, Dummy. You're a comfort station on a back-street detour. Send him on his way.",
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111,
139
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"ref": "1997 October, Joanna Elm, chapter 6, in Delusion, 1st mass market edition, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, published January 1999, →ISBN, page 51:",
"text": "Dear God, was she going to look at everybody who owned a truck with this sort of suspicion? “Come on, Heskell. Wake up and smell the coffee. They've become the singles bars of the nineties.[…]”",
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"ref": "2000, Jane Smiley, “Breeders’ Cup”, in Horse Heaven, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published 2001, →ISBN, book 2 (1998), page 319:",
"text": "He had opened his eyes, which was what his first wife was always telling him to do—open your eyes, Al, wake up and smell the coffee—and seen that Rosalind was at least as unhappy as he was, […]",
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"Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
],
"id": "en-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee-en-verb-MONjG8Sq",
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[
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"(idiomatic, US, Philippines, informal) Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
],
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"word": "open one's eyes"
},
{
"word": "take the hint"
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{
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"word": "wake up and smell the ashes"
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"word": "wake up and smell the decaf"
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{
"word": "wake up and smell the roses"
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{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "miànduì xiànshí",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "面對現實 /面对现实"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "de realiteit onder ogen zien"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "herätä todellisuuteen"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "ouvrir les yeux"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "guardare in faccia la realtà"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "acordar para a vida"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "encarar a realidade"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "снять ро́зовые очки́ pf (snjatʹ rózovyje očkí, literally “take off pink glasses”)",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "abrir los ojos"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "despertar y oler el café"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Ask Ann Landers"
]
}
],
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"ipa": "/ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
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{
"ipa": "/ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/",
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"word": "wake up and smell the coffee"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Probably a humorous elaboration of wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”), alluding to the fact that coffee is often consumed at breakfast time after waking up in the morning. The term was popularized by the American writer Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer (1918–2002), who used the pen name Ann Landers, in the syndicated newspaper advice column Ask Ann Landers.",
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"Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Philippine English",
"Rhymes:English/ɒfi",
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"Terms with Dutch translations",
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"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
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"text": "Your paper gains \"notice\" as an example of the use of English as it should not be written nor spoken. Wake up and smell the coffee.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
51,
79
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"ref": "1943 January 18, Guy Finamore, “Rationing dept.”, in Chicago Daily Tribune, volume CII, number 15, Chicago, Ill.: Wheeler, Stewart & Scripps, →OCLC, page 17, column 2:",
"text": "A few years back, when a wife told her husband to \"wake up and smell the coffee,\" it usually was said in utter derision. Now, when there is coffee to smell, she shouts it to him in supreme delight.",
"type": "quote"
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"ref": "1970 November 29, Ann Landers [pseudonym; Esther Pauline “Eppie” Lederer], “Wake up, smell the coffee”, in The News & Observer, volume CC, number 152, Raleigh, N.C.: News & Observer Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, section III (Today’s Woman), page 20, column 4:",
"text": "Wake up and smell the coffee, Dummy. You're a comfort station on a back-street detour. Send him on his way.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
111,
139
]
],
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"text": "Dear God, was she going to look at everybody who owned a truck with this sort of suspicion? “Come on, Heskell. Wake up and smell the coffee. They've become the singles bars of the nineties.[…]”",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
103,
131
]
],
"ref": "2000, Jane Smiley, “Breeders’ Cup”, in Horse Heaven, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published 2001, →ISBN, book 2 (1998), page 319:",
"text": "He had opened his eyes, which was what his first wife was always telling him to do—open your eyes, Al, wake up and smell the coffee—and seen that Rosalind was at least as unhappy as he was, […]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
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"Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
],
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[
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"(idiomatic, US, Philippines, informal) Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
],
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{
"word": "open one's eyes"
},
{
"word": "take the hint"
},
{
"tags": [
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"word": "wake up and smell the ashes"
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"word": "wake up and smell the roses"
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"ipa": "/ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/",
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"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "miànduì xiànshí",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "面對現實 /面对现实"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "de realiteit onder ogen zien"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "herätä todellisuuteen"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "ouvrir les yeux"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "guardare in faccia la realtà"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "acordar para a vida"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "encarar a realidade"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"note": "снять ро́зовые очки́ pf (snjatʹ rózovyje očkí, literally “take off pink glasses”)",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "abrir los ojos"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
"word": "despertar y oler el café"
}
],
"word": "wake up and smell the coffee"
}
Download raw JSONL data for wake up and smell the coffee meaning in English (6.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-05-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-05-20 using wiktextract (e937b02 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.