night watch


noun
  1. a watch or guard kept during the night.

  2. a person or the persons keeping such a watch.

  1. Usually night watches . the periods or divisions into which the night was divided in ancient times.

Origin of night watch

1
before 1000; Middle English; Old English

Other words from night watch

  • night watching, noun

Words Nearby night watch

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use night watch in a sentence

  • Since that night-watch at Pine Tree Ranch, he had been a different man.

    The Transformation of Job | Frederick Vining Fisher
  • The herald, as usual, constituted himself a night-watch, and perched upon the newly made mound.

  • Hildebrand has the watch on the tower—a heavy-headed knave, who holds a can of ale to be the best headpiece upon a night-watch.

    The Abbot | Sir Walter Scott
  • It was, however, a serious matter for us that we were deprived of our night-watch in districts where we had most need of them.

  • The sailor, in his lonely night-watch, looks homeward, and well known voices come to him amidst the roar of the waves.

    Slavery | William E. Channing

British Dictionary definitions for night watch

night watch

noun
  1. a watch or guard kept at night, esp for security

  2. the period of time the watch is kept

  1. a person who keeps such a watch; night watchman

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012