watch and ward
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of watch and ward
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mourned the Daily Mail: "The vision of an alert, unsleeping corps of first-class brains keeping watch and ward has taken another blow."
From Time Magazine Archive
On the pinnacle was their nest and young, and that was why the female had kept watch and ward over her eyrie, and also why she had not abandoned it even when I approached.
From Alone with the Hairy Ainu or, 3,800 miles on a pack saddle in Yezo and a cruise to the Kurile Islands. by Landor, A. H. Savage
His eyes closed, and he slipped into the dreamless, motionless sleep of tired childhood, the lay figure and the other Strange Bedfellows keeping watch and ward by his pillow.
From A Knight on Wheels by Hay, Ian
Her own ghost kept faithful watch and ward over the countess.
From My Lords of Strogue Vol. III, (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis
But keep watch and ward, lest you be overreached, for you are simple.'
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. I (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
