Wake (?), n. [Originally, an open space of water s�rrounded by ice, and then, the passage cut through ice for a vessel, probably of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. vök a hole, opening in ice, Sw. vak, Dan. vaage, perhaps akin to E. humid.] The track left by a vessel in the water; by extension, any track; as, the wake of an army.
This effect followed immediately in the wake of his earliest exertions. De Quincey.
Several humbler persons... formed quite a procession in the dusty wake of his chariot wheels. Thackeray.