Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A small key with a square tube to fit the winding-arbor of a watch, serving to wind the watch by coiling the main-spring.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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His step-father still wore, after the fashion of the Empire, his watch in the fob of his trousers, from which there depended over his abdomen a heavy gold chain, ending in a bunch of heterogeneous ornaments, seals, and a watch-key with a round top and flat sides, on which was a landscape in mosaic.
A Start in Life 2007
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A watch-key pressed firmly on the point stung by a scorpion extracts the poison, and a mixture of fat or oil and ipecacuanha relieves the pain.
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‘Which you will again make a mess of,’ said the man who lay on the sofa playing with his watch-key.
The Cossacks 2003
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Here the doctor winked at her again, but she returned his gaze so firmly and wrathfully that he soon lowered it and went on playing with his watch-key.
Boyhood 2003
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Another, a tall man, lies on a sofa beside a table on which are empty bottles, and plays with his watch-key.
The Cossacks 2003
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I went to my office, and sat there all day, stupid, only twirling my watch-key, and repeating to myself, -- 'A gold dollar!
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 40, February, 1861 Various
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Over and over the father appeals to the village physician to know what the chances may be, -- to which that old gentleman, fumbling his watch-key, and looking grave, makes very doubtful response.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 Various
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Crawford declared this was the only portrait of Washington which literally represented his costume; having recently examined the uniform, sword, etc., he was enabled to identify the strands of the epaulette, the number of buttons, and even the peculiar seal and watch-key.
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The long and the short of it is, perhaps, that music, being a universal art, like a universal watch-key, will set going the complicated cogs and springs of every soul and yet not regulate or assure its rhythm.
The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 2 Rupert Hughes 1914
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The long and the short of it is, perhaps, that music, being a universal art, like a universal watch-key, will set going the complicated cogs and springs of every soul and yet not regulate or assure its rhythm.
The Love Affairs of Great Musicians Hughes, Rupert, 1872-1956 1903
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