ˈlyke-wake, ˈlykewake
(ˈlaɪkweɪk)
Also 4, 9 liche-wake, 6, 9 lyk(e)wa(i)ke, 6–7 like-, lyke-walk, 8–9 lake-wake, 9 lychwake. Cf. late-wake.
[f. lyke, lich + wake n.]
The watch kept at night over a dead body.
| c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2100 Ne how that lych wake was yholde Al thilke nyght,..kepe I nat to seye. 1513 Douglas æneis x. ix. 31 Quham that he etlis for to send from thens, To Pallas likewalkis. 1558 Richmond Wills (Surtees 1853) 127 Ther shall be no yong folkes at my lyke⁓waike. 1623 in Pitcairn Crim. Trials III. 549 At quhose lyke-walk..the ox foirsaid was slane and eittin. a 1775 Fair Mary of Wallington xix. in Child Ballads II. 311/2 Your daughter..bids you come to her sickening, or her merry lake-wake. 1832 Carlyle Misc. (1857) III. 114 At all lykewakes, the doings and endurances of the Departed are the theme. 1878 W. C. Smith Hilda (1879) 192, I heard them..moan their rugged lyke-wakes in the ancient Runic rhymes. |
| attrib. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. iv. xxvi, Our slogan is their lyke-wake dirge. 1837 Sir F. Palgrave Merch. & Friar (1844) 99 The lyke-wake train was seen advancing towards them. |