watch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To look or observe attentively or carefully; be closely observant: watching for trail markers.
2. v. To look and wait expectantly or in anticipation: watch for an opportunity.
3. v. To act as a spectator; look on: stood by the road and watched.
4. v. To stay awake at night while serving as a guard, sentinel, or watcher.
5. v. To stay alert as a devotional or religious exercise; keep vigil.
6. v. To look at steadily; observe carefully or continuously: watch a parade.
7. v. To keep a watchful eye on; guard: watched the prisoner all day.
8. v. To observe the course of mentally; keep up on or informed about: watch the price of gold.
9. v. To tend (a flock, for example). See Synonyms at tend².
10. n. The act or process of keeping awake or mentally alert, especially for the purpose of guarding.
11. n. The act of observing closely or the condition of being closely observed; surveillance.
12. n. A period of close observation, often in order to discover something: a watch during the child's illness.
13. n. A person or group of people serving, especially at night, to guard or protect.
14. n. The post or period of duty of a guard, sentinel, or watcher.
15. n. Any of the periods into which the night is divided; a part of the night.
16. n. Nautical Any of the periods of time, usually four hours, into which the day aboard ship is divided and during which a part of the crew is assigned to duty.
17. n. Nautical The members of a ship's crew on duty during a specific watch.
18. n. Nautical A chronometer on a ship.
19. n. A period of wakefulness, especially one observed as a religious vigil.
20. n. A funeral wake.
21. n. A small portable timepiece, especially one worn on the wrist or carried in the pocket.
22. n. A flock of nightingales. See Synonyms at flock¹.
23. watch out To be careful or on the alert; take care.
24. watch over To be in charge of; superintend.
25. idiom. watch it To be careful: had to watch it when I stepped onto the ice.
26. idiom. watch (one's) step To act or proceed with care and caution.
27. idiom. watch (one's) step To behave as is demanded, required, or appropriate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To assign to a watch.
2. n. The state of being awake; wake-fulness.
3. n. A keeping awake for the purpose of attending, guarding, or preserving; attendance with out sleep; preservative or preventive vigilance; vigil.
4. n. A wake. See wake, n., 2.
5. n. Close, constant, observation; vigilant attention; careful, continued notice; supervision; vigilance; outlook: as, to be on the watch.
6. n. A person, or number of persons, whose duty it is to watch over the persons, property, or interests of others; a watchman, or body of watchmen; a sentinel; a sentry; guard.
7. n. The period of time during which one person or body of persons watch or stand sentinel, or the time from one relief of sentinels to another; hence, a division of the night, when the precautionary setting of a watch is most generally necessary; period of time; hour. The Jews, like the Greeks and Romans, divided the night into military watches instead of hours, each watch representing the period for which each separate body of sentinels remained on duty. The proper Jewish reckoning recognized only-three such watches: the first (lasting from sunset till about 10 p. m..), the second or middle watch (10 p. m.. to 2 a. m.), and the third, or morning watch (from 2 a. m. till sunrise). After the establishment of the Roman power they were increased to four, which were named as first, second, etc., or by the terms even, midnight, cock-crowing, and morning, these terminating respectively at 9 P.M., midnight, 3 A.M., and 6 A.M.
8. n. Nautical:
9. n. The period of time occupied by each part of a ship's crew alternately while on duty. The period of time called a watch is four hours, the reckoning beginning at noon or midnight. Between 4 and 8 p. m. the time is divided into two short watches, or dog-watches, in order to prevent the constant recurrence of duty to the same portion of the crew during the same hours. Thus, the period from 12 to 4 p. m. is called the afternoon watch, from 4 to 6 the first dog-watch, from 6 to 8 the second dog-watch, from 8 to 12 the first night watch, from midnight to 4 a. m. the middle watch, from 4 to 8 the morning watch, and from 8 to 12 noon the forenoon watch. When this alternation of watches is kept up during the 24 hours, it is termed having watch and watch, in distinction from keeping all hands at work during one or more watches.
10. n. A certain part of the officers and crew of a vessel who together attend to working her for an allotted time. The crew of every vessel while at sea is generally divided into two parts: the starboard watch, which in the merchant service is the captain's watch, and is often commanded by the second mate; and the port or larboard watch, which in the merchant service is commanded by the chief mate. In the British and United States navies these watches are commanded by the lieu tenants successively. The anchor-watch is a small watch composed of one or two men appointed to look after the ship while at anchor or in port.
11. n. Anything by which the progress of time is perceived and measured. A candle marked out into sections, each of which required a certain time to burn.
12. n. A small portable timepiece or timekeeper that may be worn on the person, operated by power stored in a coiled spring, and capable of keeping time when held in any position. Watches were invented at Nüremberg about the be ginning of the sixteenth century, and for a long time the wearing of a watch was considered in some degree a mark or proof of gentility. Thus Malvolio remarks in anticipation of his great fortune:
13. n. plural A name of the trumpetleaf, Sarracenia flava, probably alluding to the resemblance of the flowers to watches.
14. n. In pottery, a trial piece of clay so placed in a kiln that it can be readily withdrawn to enable the workmen to judge by its appearance of the heat of the fire and the condition of the ware remaining in the saggars.
15. n. In hawking, a company or flight, as of nightingales.
16. To be awake; be or continue without sleep; keep vigil.
17. To be attentive, circumspect, or vigilant; be closely observant; notice carefully; give heed.
18. To act as a watchman, guard, sentinel, or the like; keep watch.
19. To look forward with expectation; be expectant; seek opportunity; wait.
20. To act as attendant or nurse on the sick by night; remain awake to give attendance, assistance, or the like: as, to watch with a patient in a fever.
21. To float on the surface of the water: said of a buoy.
22. To look with close attention at or on; keep carefully and constantly in view or supervision; keep a sharp lookout on or for; observe, notice, or regard with vigilance and care; keep an eye upon.
23. To have in keeping; tend; guard; take care of.
24. To look for; wait for.
25. To take or detect by lying in wait; surprise.
26. In falconry, to keep awake; keep from sleep, as a hawk, for the purpose of exhausting and taming it.

Wiktionary

1. n. A portable or wearable timepiece.
2. n. A particular time period when guarding is kept.
3. n. A person or group of people who guard.
4. n. nautical A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch, port watch.
5. n. nautical 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).
6. n. The act of seeing, or viewing, for a period of time.
7. v. obsolete, intransitive To be awake.
8. v. transitive To look at, see, or view for a period of time.
9. v. transitive To observe over a period of time; to notice or pay attention.
10. v. transitive To mind, attend, or guard.
11. v. transitive To be wary or cautious of.
12. v. transitive To attend to dangers to or regarding.
13. v. intransitive To remain awake with a sick or dying person; to maintain a vigil
14. v. intransitive To be vigilant or on one's guard
15. v. intransitive To act as a lookout

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of watching; forbearance of sleep; vigil; wakeful, vigilant, or constantly observant attention; close observation; guard; preservative or preventive vigilance; formerly, a watching or guarding by night.
2. n. One who watches, or those who watch; a watchman, or a body of watchmen; a sentry; a guard.
3. n. The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.
4. n. The period of the night during which a person does duty as a sentinel, or guard; the time from the placing of a sentinel till his relief; hence, a division of the night.
5. n. A small timepiece, or chronometer, to be carried about the person, the machinery of which is moved by a spring.
6. n. An allotted portion of time, usually four hour for standing watch, or being on deck ready for duty. Cf. Dogwatch.
7. n. That part, usually one half, of the officers and crew, who together attend to the working of a vessel for an allotted time, usually four hours. The watches are designated as the port watch, and the starboard watch.
8. v. To be awake; to be or continue without sleep; to wake; to keep vigil.
9. v. To be attentive or vigilant; to give heed; to be on the lookout; to keep guard; to act as sentinel.
10. v. To be expectant; to look with expectation; to wait; to seek opportunity.
11. v. To remain awake with any one as nurse or attendant; to attend on the sick during the night.
12. v. (Naut.) To serve the purpose of a watchman by floating properly in its place; -- said of a buoy.
13. v. To give heed to; to observe the actions or motions of, for any purpose; to keep in view; not to lose from sight and observation.
14. v. To tend; to guard; to have in keeping.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. the rite of staying awake for devotional purposes (especially on the eve of a religious festival)
2. v. see or watch
3. n. a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe
4. v. look attentively
5. v. be vigilant, be on the lookout or be careful
6. n. a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event
7. n. the period during which someone (especially a guard) is on duty
8. v. follow with the eyes or the mind
9. v. observe or determine by looking
10. v. find out, learn, or determine with certainty, usually by making an inquiry or other effort
11. n. a period of time (4 or 2 hours) during which some of a ship's crew are on duty
12. v. observe with attention
13. n. a small portable timepiece