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• clock watcher
  clock watcher

  noun

  an employee who demonstrates lack of interest in a job by watching the time closely to be sure to stop work as soon as the workday or shift is over.
• clock-watcher
  clock-watcher

  noun

  an employee who checks the time in anticipation of a break or of the end of the working day

clock watcher

American  

noun

1. an employee who demonstrates lack of interest in a job by watching the time closely to be sure to stop work as soon as the workday or shift is over.

2. any person who watches the time closely, as in expectation of some news or event.

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clock-watcher British  

noun

1. an employee who checks the time in anticipation of a break or of the end of the working day

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Other Word Forms

• clock watching
  noun

Etymology

Origin of clock watcher

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

clock watcher clock-watcher

Maybe the simplest description of Navratilova's command now is that she can turn the No. 3 player in the world into a clock watcher.

From Time Magazine Archive

In a period of nominal inflation, for example, a firm could afford to reward its superstars with raises of 12% or so because the average clock watcher would need to be given only, say, 2%.

From Time Magazine Archive

The compulsive clock watcher, on the other hand, has the same desire to rebel; unlike the latecomer, he suppresses it and submits to authority.

From Time Magazine Archive

Alexis Owen-Hobbs as the high-stepping Gladys, Peter Polycarpou as the obsessive clock-watcher and Colin Stinton as the pugnacious boss lend superb support, while Stephen Mear proves yet again he is our most inventive showbiz choreographer.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 30, 2013

For the average clock-watcher, there's not much to worry about.

From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2012

Larner was anything but a clock-watcher, but on a certain bright day in June he was seated in his laboratory doing just that.

From Astounding Stories of Super-Science April 1930 by Bates, Harry

He was no respecter of time, neither did he emulate his military colleague in being a clock-watcher.

From Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben by Mahoney, Henry Charles

I never put anything on paper—you're the man that does that—and if the Interstate Commerce people should break in, I'd have the best little forgettery of any clock-watcher in the works.

From Branded by Lynde, Francis