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The sitting up of persons with a dead body, often attended with a degree of festivity, chiefly among the Irish. "Blithe as shepherd at a wake." Cowper. Wake play, the ceremonies and pastimes connected with a wake. See Wake, n., 3 (b), above. [Obs.] Chaucer.

s appearance was hailed with acclamation, being the wassail bowl so renowned in Christmas festivity." W. Irving. -- Wassail cup, a cup from which wassail was drunk.

One who drinks wassail; one who engages in festivity, especially in drinking; a reveler. The rudeness and swilled insolence Of such late wassailers. Milton.