keep watch
Also, keep a watch or close watch on; watch over. Observe with continuous attention, especially to act as a sentinel or for protection. For example, Afraid that the wolves would return, she kept watch while the others slept, or They kept a close watch on the harbor, looking for signs of enemy ships, or, according to the Gospel of St. Luke (2:8): “And there were in the same country shepherds ... keeping watch over their flock by night.” [Late 1300s] Also see keep an eye out for.
Words Nearby keep watch
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use keep watch in a sentence
Visitors today can keep watch over the scene in the booth at the end of the bar that Capone and his cronies once occupied.
One of the dwarfs remained at home every day to keep watch over her.
In New Brothers Grimm 'Snow White', The Prince Doesn't Save Her | The Brothers Grimm | November 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOnly five of the lifeboat men, called harbour boatmen, keep watch in and around the little stone house at nights.
The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands | R.M. BallantyneBy this means he easily descended, leaving Hamilton to keep watch above.
The Comte de Solern followed at a slight distance to keep watch over the king.
Catherine de' Medici | Honore de Balzac
The latter, considering it prudent to keep watch, even after the victory of the day, was busy with the measures for the night.
The Pilgrim's Shell or Fergan the Quarryman | Eugne SueCaroline should keep watch over herself; you vaunt silence as the surest method of being witty.
The Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete | Honore de Balzac
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