sentinel

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“
Not even the sentinel was able to keep his eyes open. "

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun One that keeps guard; a sentry.
  2. transitive verb To watch over as a guard.
  3. transitive verb To provide with a guard.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • But there chanced to be a Ranger on duty as a sentinel, and early one morning, before the sun was up, his attention was attracted to a flight of wonderful birds silently winging their way across the sky. —  Old Put The Patriot
  • He had been placed as a sentinel, at the door of a ball-room, or some public place of resort, when two of his officers, passing in, stopped for a moment, near Mr. C., talking about Euripides, two lines from whom, one of them repeated. —  Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey
  • On the balcony Rosie stood straight as a sentinel, her face guarded. —  Set Sail for Murder
  • This would all be quite dull if not for the sentinel, a slowly turning eye high upon a peak somewhere on each landscape. —  Retro Thing
  • Like the speech of the sentinel, his words were quite unintelligible to those addressed, but his action seemed easily interpretable as the sign of peace, and Earle instantly imitated it Thanks, old chap," the American replied, beaming amiably upon the soldier; "it is good of you to say so; but I'm awfully sorry that I can't understand you. —  In Search of El Dorado
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sentry ·  watchman ·  guardian ·  watcher ·  outpost ·  guard ·  policeman ·  picket ·  fortress ·  horseman ·  vigil ·  scout

Used in the same contextWord Family

sentinel:   sentinels
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French sentinelle, from Italian sentinella, probably from Old Italian sentina, vigilance, from sentire, to watch, from Latin sentīre, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also sentinell, centinel, centinell, centonell; = Middle Dutch sentinelle = Spanish centinela = Portuguese sentinella = Italian sentinella, a sentinel, from Old French sentinelle, French sentinelle, a sentinel, a watch, a sense transferred from the earlier meaning ‘a watching at a particular post,’ not given by Cotgrave, but apparent from Kilian's def. (Middle Dutch “sentinelle, excubiæ, vigiliæ, primæ excubiæ, excubitor exstans, statio, stationes”—Kilian, Appendix), and from the phrase lever de sentinelle, relieve from sentinel's duty, literally ‘take from his beat,’ sentinelle being originally, it appears, the post itself, a sentinel's beat, the same as sentinelle, a path, a little path, diminutive, like the equivalent sentelle, a little path, of Old French sente, a path (cf. Old French senteret, a little path, diminutive of sentier, French sentier, a path, from Middle Latin semitarius, a path), from Latin semita, a path, foot-path, by-path, prob. from se -, apart, + meare √ mi), go: see meatus. This view agrees with a similar explanation of sentry, q. v.
  2. from sentinel, n.
 

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/ˈsɛntɪnɛl/
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