Word.ws English Dictionary

rude awakening

rude awakening noun: an unexpected discovery of an undesirable fact, especially one shattering high hopes or signifying the end of a comfortable situation.

Noun

rude awakening (plural rude awakenings)

  1. An unexpected discovery of an undesirable fact, especially one shattering high hopes or signifying the end of a comfortable situation.
    • Mario Gomez scored twice as Manchester City were given a rude awakening by Bayern Munich in the Champions League.2011 September 27, Alistair Magowan, “Bayern Munich 2 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport
    • Mums who expect blissful bonding times while baby breastfeeds and you snuggle up to take naps together are in for a rude awakening.2019 June 6, Julie McCaffrey, “Stacey Solomon says getting pre-baby body back is the ‘least of her worries’”, in Mirror.co.uk

Forms of rude awakening

pluralrude awakenings

Questions about rude awakening

What does rude awakening mean?
Rude awakening means an unexpected discovery of an undesirable fact, especially one shattering high hopes or signifying the end of a comfortable situation.
What part of speech is rude awakening?
Rude awakening is a noun.
What is the plural of rude awakening?
The plural of rude awakening is rude awakenings.

Words near rude awakening in the dictionary

  1. ruddy-tailed flycatcher
  2. ruddy-tailed flycatchers
  3. ruddying
  4. ruddyish
  5. rude
  6. rude awakening
  7. rude awakenings
  8. rude boy
  9. rude boys
  10. rudeboy
  11. rudeboys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rude awakening (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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