wake up and smell the coffee

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb

Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself.

Pronunciation

/ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/ /ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/ En-au-wake up and smell the coffee.ogg

Word forms

wake up and smell the coffee wakes up and smells the coffee waking up and smelling the coffee woke up and smelled the coffee woke up and smelt the coffee woken up and smelled the coffee woken up and smelt the coffee

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.

Synonyms

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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