Other forms: watching, watched, watches
To watch is to keep your eyes on something while it happens — a film, a match, the rain. It is different from see, which is what your eyes do without asking, and from look, which is a single act rather than a stretch of attention.
The same word is the small clock on your wrist, from the days when a watch was a period of keeping guard through the night — the same root as watching. That guard sense survives: watch my bag, watch the baby, watch your step. And watch out is a warning shouted, not a request.
1verblookTo look at something for a while, especially something that moves or changes.~9%
“We watched the storm come in over the sea.”
2nounwatchThe small clock you wear on your wrist.~89%
“His watch had stopped at ten past four.”
3verbguardTo keep your eyes on something in order to keep it safe.~2%
“Could you watch my bag for a minute?”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: wristwatch
Middle English
wacche
English, today
watch
From Middle English wacche. As a noun, from Middle English wacche, from Old English wæċċe. See below for verb form.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA