"wake up and smell the coffee" meaning in English

See wake up and smell the coffee in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-wake up and smell the coffee.ogg [Australia] Forms: wakes up and smells the coffee [present, singular, third-person], waking up and smelling the coffee [participle, present], woke up and smelled the coffee [past], woke up and smelt the coffee [past], woken up and smelled the coffee [participle, past], woken up and smelt the coffee [participle, past]
Rhymes: -ɒfi (one pronunciation) Etymology: 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. Etymology templates: {{m|en|wake up|t=to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand}} wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”) Head templates: {{en-verb|wake<,,woke,woken> up and smell<,,:smelt> the coffee|head=wake up and smell the coffee}} wake up and smell the coffee (third-person singular simple present wakes up and smells the coffee, present participle waking up and smelling the coffee, simple past woke up and smelled the coffee or woke up and smelt the coffee, past participle woken up and smelled the coffee or woken up and smelt the coffee)
  1. (idiomatic, US, informal) Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself. Wikipedia link: Ask Ann Landers Tags: US, idiomatic, informal Categories (topical): Coffee Synonyms: open one's eyes, take the hint, wake up and smell the ashes [rare], wake up and smell the decaf, wake up and smell the roses Translations (to face reality and stop deluding oneself): 面對現實 (Chinese Mandarin), 面对现实 (miànduì xiànshí) (Chinese Mandarin), de realiteit onder ogen zien (Dutch), herätä todellisuuteen (Finnish), ouvrir les yeux (French), acordar para a vida (Portuguese), encarar a realidade (Portuguese)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for wake up and smell the coffee meaning in English (7.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "wake up",
        "t": "to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand"
      },
      "expansion": "wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wakes up and smells the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waking up and smelling the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "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"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "woken up and smelt the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "wake<,,woke,woken> up and smell<,,:smelt> the coffee",
        "head": "wake up and smell the coffee"
      },
      "expansion": "wake up and smell the coffee (third-person singular simple present wakes up and smells the coffee, present participle waking up and smelling the coffee, simple past woke up and smelled the coffee or woke up and smelt the coffee, past participle woken up and smelled the coffee or woken up and smelt the coffee)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "wake"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
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          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
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          "kind": "other",
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        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Coffee",
          "orig": "en:Coffee",
          "parents": [
            "Beverages",
            "Drinking",
            "Food and drink",
            "Liquids",
            "Human behaviour",
            "All topics",
            "Matter",
            "Human",
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            "Chemistry",
            "Nature",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 October, Joanna Elm, chapter 6, in Delusion, 1st mass market edition, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, published January 1999, 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.[…]”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Jane Smiley, “Breeders’ Cup”, in Horse Heaven, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published 2001, 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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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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        [
          "face",
          "face#Verb"
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        [
          "reality",
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          "stop",
          "stop#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "deluding",
          "delude"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US, informal) Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "open one's eyes"
        },
        {
          "word": "take the hint"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "rare"
          ],
          "word": "wake up and smell the ashes"
        },
        {
          "word": "wake up and smell the decaf"
        },
        {
          "word": "wake up and smell the roses"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
          "word": "面對現實"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "miànduì xiànshí",
          "sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
          "word": "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": "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"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Ask Ann Landers"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɒfi (one pronunciation)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-wake up and smell the coffee.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/En-au-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee.ogg/En-au-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/En-au-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wake up and smell the coffee"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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        "2": "wake up",
        "t": "to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand"
      },
      "expansion": "wake up (“to become more aware of a real-life situation; to concentrate on the matter in hand”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wakes up and smells the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "waking up and smelling the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
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    {
      "form": "woke up and smelled the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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    {
      "form": "woke up and smelt the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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    {
      "form": "woken up and smelled the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "woken up and smelt the coffee",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "wake<,,woke,woken> up and smell<,,:smelt> the coffee",
        "head": "wake up and smell the coffee"
      },
      "expansion": "wake up and smell the coffee (third-person singular simple present wakes up and smells the coffee, present participle waking up and smelling the coffee, simple past woke up and smelled the coffee or woke up and smelt the coffee, past participle woken up and smelled the coffee or woken up and smelt the coffee)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
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    "wake"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
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        "English coordinated pairs",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Mandarin terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Rhymes:English/ɒfi",
        "Rhymes:English/ɒfi/7 syllables",
        "en:Coffee"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "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": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 October, Joanna Elm, chapter 6, in Delusion, 1st mass market edition, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, published January 1999, 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.[…]”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Jane Smiley, “Breeders’ Cup”, in Horse Heaven, 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published 2001, 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": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "face",
          "face#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "reality",
          "reality"
        ],
        [
          "stop",
          "stop#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "deluding",
          "delude"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, US, informal) Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "open one's eyes"
        },
        {
          "word": "take the hint"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "rare"
          ],
          "word": "wake up and smell the ashes"
        },
        {
          "word": "wake up and smell the decaf"
        },
        {
          "word": "wake up and smell the roses"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic",
        "informal"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Ask Ann Landers"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ɒfi (one pronunciation)"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-wake up and smell the coffee.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/En-au-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee.ogg/En-au-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/En-au-wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
      "word": "面對現實"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "miànduì xiànshí",
      "sense": "to face reality and stop deluding oneself",
      "word": "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": "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"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wake up and smell the coffee"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.