wake up and smell the coffee
Syllables: wake up and smell the cof·feeUK/ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/US/ˈweɪk ˌʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɔfi/
wake up and smell the coffee verb: often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself.
Verb
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)
- Often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself.
- 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.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
- 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.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
- Synonyms:
- open one's eyes, take the hint, wake up and smell the ashes, wake up and smell the decaf, wake up and smell the roses
Synonyms of wake up and smell the coffee
- open one's eyes
- take the hint
- wake up and smell the decaf
- wake up and smell the roses
- wake up and smell the ashes
Forms of wake up and smell the coffee
| third-person singular present | wakes up and smells the coffee |
|---|---|
| present participle | waking up and smelling the coffee |
| past | woke up and smelled the coffee |
| past | woke up and smelt the coffee |
| past participle | woken up and smelled the coffee |
| past participle | woken up and smelt the coffee |
Origin of wake up and smell the coffee
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.
Questions about wake up and smell the coffee
- What does wake up and smell the coffee mean?
- Wake up and smell the coffee means often in the infinitive or imperative: to face reality and stop deluding oneself.
- What part of speech is wake up and smell the coffee?
- Wake up and smell the coffee is a verb.
- How do you pronounce wake up and smell the coffee?
- Wake up and smell the coffee is pronounced /ˈweɪk ʌp n̩ ˈsmɛl ðə ˈkɒfi/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of wake up and smell the coffee?
- The past tense of wake up and smell the coffee is woke up and smelled the coffee.
Words near wake up and smell the coffee in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wake up and smell the coffee (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-wake up and smell the coffee.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wake up and smell the coffee.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wake_up_and_smell_the_coffee. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.