watch
/ˈwɑt͡ʃ/ noun A1- A portable or wearable timepiece. · Meronyms: watch face, watch receiver, watchspring, watch battery, watchstrap, watch strap, watchband· He set the alarm on his watch to 8:00 am.
- The act of guarding and observing someone or something.
- A particular time period when guarding is kept. · The second watch of the night began at midnight.
- A period of wakefulness between the two sleeps of a biphasic sleep pattern (the dead sleep or first sleep and morning sleep or second sleep): the first waking.
- A person or group of people who guard. · The watch stopped the travelers at the city gates.
- The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.
- A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch, port watch.
- A period of time on duty, usually four hours in length; the officers and crew who tend the working of a vessel during the same watch. (FM 55–501).
Plural watches
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
Dorothy and Toto and the Lion lay down to sleep, while the Woodman and the Scarecrow kept watch over them as usual.
Holmes had taken out his watch, and as minute followed minute without result, an expression of the utmost chagrin and disappointment appeared upon his features.
In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.
A SHEPHERD, keeping watch over his sheep near the shore, saw the Sea very calm and smooth, and longed to make a voyage with a view to commerce.
Other matches
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