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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

watch.

A portable or wearable timepiece.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwɒt͡ʃ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɔt͡ʃ/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/ˈwɑt͡ʃ//ˈwɔt͡ʃ/
  1. A portable or wearable timepiece.

    More people today carry a watch on their wrists than in their pockets; some people today don't use a watch at all, because their smartphone serves the purpose well enough.
    He set the alarm on his watch to 8:00 am.
  2. The act of guarding and observing someone or something.

  3. A particular time period when guarding is kept.

    The second watch of the night began at midnight.
  4. 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.

  5. A person or group of people who guard.

    The watch stopped the travelers at the city gates.
  6. The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.

  7. A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch, port watch.

  8. 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).

  9. The act of seeing, or viewing, for a period of time.

  10. A group of nightingales.

    collective · rare
Where this word comes from

As a noun, from Middle English wacche, from Old English wæċċe. See below for verb form.

verb/ˈwɒt͡ʃ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɔt͡ʃ/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/ˈwɑt͡ʃ//ˈwɔt͡ʃ/
  1. To look at, see, or view for a period of time.

    ambitransitive
    Watching the clock will not make time go faster.
    I'm tired of watching TV.
  2. To observe over a period of time; to notice or pay attention.

    transitive
    Watch this!
    Put a little baking soda in some vinegar and watch what happens.
  3. To mind, attend, or guard.

    transitive
    Please watch my suitcase for a minute.
    He has to watch the kids that afternoon.
  4. To be wary or cautious of.

    transitive
    You should watch that guy. He has a reputation for lying.
  5. To attend to dangers to or regarding.

    transitive
    watch your head; watch your step
    Watch yourself when you talk to him.
  6. To remain awake with a sick or dying person; to maintain a vigil.

    intransitive
  7. To be vigilant or on one's guard.

    intransitive
    For some must watch, while some must sleep: So runs the world away.
  8. To act as a lookout.

    intransitive
  9. To serve the purpose of a watchman by floating properly in its place.

  10. To be awake.

    intransitive · obsolete
  11. To be on the lookout for; to wait for expectantly.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wacchen, from Old English wæċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *wakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *wakjaną. Cognate with Dutch wekken, German wecken, Danish vække, Norwegian Bokmål vekke, Norwegian Nynorsk vekkja, Swedish väcka, Faroese and Icelandic vekja.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.