Wiktionary

watchman

See also: Watchman

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English waccheman. By surface analysis, watch +‎ -man.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈwɒtʃmən/
  • Hyphenation: watch‧man
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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watchman (plural watchmen)

  1. A man set to watch: a man who keeps guard, especially one who guards a building, or the streets of a city, by night; (loosely) any such person of any sex or gender.
    Hyponym: night watchman
    Near-synonyms: watcher, watchwoman
    • 1829, Edward Bulwer Lytton, chapter XVIII, in The Disowned‎[1]:
      The visits of the watchman to that (then) obscure and ill-inhabited neighborhood were more regulated by his indolence than his duty; and Clarence knew that it would be in vain to listen for his cry or tarry for his assistance.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 8:
      Well, it so happened that Stine and the cook were sitting in their room one evening, mending and darning their things; it was near bedtime, for the watchman had already sung out "Ten o'clock," but somehow the darning and the sewing went on very slowly indeed[.]
    • 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 149:
      Watchmen are stationed continuously at each end of the bridge, and the main spans are patrolled twice during the night.
    • 2004 September 5, Laura Miller, “Imagine”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 July 2021:
      In 1972, a night watchman patrolling a hotel-office complex noticed that the basement garage door had been taped open and, attributing this to the carelessness of a maintenance worker earlier that day, peeled the tape off.
    • 2010, Bob McCann, Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, page 51:
      A black night watchman at a factory is accused of murdering a young white secretary who works at the factory, but it turns out the factory owner accidentally killed her when she refused his advances.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Spanish: guachimán, wachimán

Translations

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See also

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