watching

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watch

(wŏch)

v. watched, watch·ing, watch·es

v.intr.

1. To look or observe attentively or carefully; be closely observant: watching for trail markers.

2. To look and wait expectantly or in anticipation: watch for an opportunity.

3. To act as a spectator; look on: stood by the road and watched.

4. To stay awake at night while serving as a guard, sentinel, or watcher.

5. To stay alert as a devotional or religious exercise; keep vigil.

v.tr.

1. To look at steadily; observe carefully or continuously: watch a parade.

2. To guard, keep surveillance on, or spy on: watched the prisoner all day; watched the house to see who came and went.

3. To observe the course of mentally; keep up on or informed about: watch the price of gold.

4. To pay close attention to or be careful about, especially with regard to propriety: watched his manners.

5. To tend or take care of (children or a flock of sheep, for example). See Synonyms at tend².

1. The act or process of keeping awake or mentally alert, especially for the purpose of guarding.

a. The act of observing closely or the condition of being closely observed; surveillance.

b. A period of close observation, often in order to discover something: a watch during the child's illness.

3. A person or group of people serving, especially at night, to guard or protect.

4. The post or period of duty of a guard, sentinel, or watcher.

5. Any of the periods into which the night is divided; a part of the night.

6. Nautical

a. 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.

b. The members of a ship's crew on duty during a specific watch.

c. A chronometer on a ship.

a. A period of wakefulness, especially one observed as a religious vigil.

b. A funeral wake.

8. A small portable timepiece, especially one worn on the wrist or carried in the pocket.

9. A flock of nightingales.

Phrasal Verbs:

watch out

To be careful or on the alert; take care.

watch over

To be in charge of; superintend.

Idioms:

watch it

To be careful: had to watch it when I stepped onto the ice.

watch (one's) step

1. To act or proceed with care and caution.

2. To behave as is demanded, required, or appropriate.

[Middle English wacchen, from Old English wæccan, to watch, be awake; see weg- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

watching - the act of observing; taking a patient look

observance, observation

looking, looking at, look - the act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually; "he went out to have a look"; "his look was fixed on her eyes"; "he gave it a good looking at"; "his camera does his looking for him"

monitoring - the act of observing something (and sometimes keeping a record of it); "the monitoring of enemy communications plays an important role in war times"

sighting - the act of observing; "several sightings of enemy troops were reported"

stargazing - observation of the stars

Translations

osservazione

References in classic literature ?

All this time she wore the face of a woman happily married who meant to go straight home, there to await her lord's glorious return; and the military-looking gentleman watching her with a bored smile saw nothing better before him than a chapter on the Domestic Felicities.

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"How much of human suffering I have--not only relieved, but actually annihilated!" And, in a glow of conscious virtue, I stood watching the unloading of the cart, still holding the Magic Watch open in my hand, as I was curious to see what would happen when we again reached the exact time at which I had put back the hand.

View in context

Before they knew what had come over them, the base runners were watching the man, edging off the bases, advancing, retreating, held as by an invisible cord.

View in context

They hung about the neighborhood of the tavern until after nine, one watching the alley at a distance and the other the tavern door.

View in context

The landlord told all the people who were in the inn about the craze of his guest, the watching of the armour, and the dubbing ceremony he contemplated.

As he had already told him, he said, there was no chapel in the castle, nor was it needed for what remained to be done, for, as he understood the ceremonial of the order, the whole point of being dubbed a knight lay in the accolade and in the slap on the shoulder, and that could be administered in the middle of a field; and that he had now done all that was needful as to watching the armour, for all requirements were satisfied by a watch of two hours only, while he had been more than four about it.

View in context

The men were forward, also watching the land grow upward out of the ocean.

View in context

It was set about with hawthorn hedges and juniper bushes, and on the small, green branches sat a little nightingale, which sang so loud and clear "that all the garden and the walls rang right with the song." Prince James leaned from his window listening to the song of the birds, and watching them as they hopped from branch to branch, preening themselves in the early sunshine and twittering to their mates.

View in context

He felt, therefore, that the occasion was one for extra carefulness in the watching of all that went on.