Watch1, n.
(wŏtch), n. [A-S. wǣce, D. wacht, waak, O. H. Ger. wahta, wacha, N. H. Ger. wacht, wache, Goth. wahtwō, Icel. & Sw. vakt, Dan. vagt. See WAKE and infra.]
Sense 1. 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. “Shepherds keeping watch by night.” Milton.
All the long night their mournful watch they keep. Addison.
Sense 2. One who watches, or those who watch; a watchman or body of watchmen; a sentry; a guard.
Ye have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as you can. Matt. xxviii. 65.
Sense 3. The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where he is posted.
He upbraids Iago, that he made him Brave me upon the watch. Shak.
I did stand my watch upon the hill. Shak.
Sense 4. The period of the night in which one person, or one set of persons, stand as sentinels; or the time from one relief of sentinels to another; hence, a division of the night.
Might we but hear . . . Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock Count the night watches to his feathery dames. Milton.
Sense 5. A small timepiece or chronometer, to be carried in the pocket or about the person, in which the machinery is moved by a spring.
Sense 6. (Naut.) (a.) An allotted portion of time, usually four hours, for watching, or being on duty. (b.) That part of the officers and crew of a vessel who together attend to working her for an allotted time.
☞ Watch was formerly distinguished from ward, the former signifying a watching or guarding by night, and the latter a watching, guarding, or protecting by day. Hence they were not unfrequently used together, especially in the phrase to keep watch and ward, to denote continuous and uninterrupted vigilance or protection, or both watching and guarding. This distinction, which was very generally observed by writers of the seventeenth century and earlier, is now rarely recognized, watch being used to signify a watching or guarding both by night and by day, and ward, which is now rarely used, having simply the meaning of guard, or protection, without reference to time.
Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward. Spenser.
Pilate saith, you have a watch, go make it sure as you know. Hence it followeth, that they came to Pilate when watches were wont to be set; but if they had not come to him till the next morning, then in reason he would have said, get warders and make it sure. W. Pynchon, 1654.
Ward, guard, or custodia, is chiefly applied to the daytime, in order to apprehend rioters, and robbers on the highway. . . . Watch is properly applied to the night only, . . . and it begins when ward ends, and ends when that begins. Blackstone.
Watching is properly intended of the night, and warding for the daytime. Dalton.
Anchor-watch, a watch of three or four men stationed at an anchor, when a vessel is riding at anchor, to see that all is right and ready for use. Totten.—Dog-watch. See DOG-WATCH.—To be on the watch, to be looking steadily for some event.—Watch and ward, the charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace. Wharton. Burrill.—Watch and watch, an arrangement by which the watches are alternated every other four hours, in distinction from keeping all hands on deck during one or more watches. This is given in bad weather, and when day's work can not be carried on. Dana.