Watch n.
 1. The act of watching; forbearance of sleep; vigil; wakeful, vigilant, or constantly observant attention; close observation; guard; preservative or preventive vigilance; formerly, a watching or guarding by night.
    Shepherds keeping watch by night.   --Milton.
    All the long night their mournful watch they keep.   --Addison.
 Note: ☞ Watch was formerly distinguished from ward, the former signifying a watching or guarding by night, and the latter a watching, guarding, or protecting by day Hence, they were not unfrequently used together, especially in the phrase to keep watch and ward, to denote continuous and uninterrupted vigilance or protection, or both watching and guarding. This distinction is now rarely recognized, watch being used to signify a watching or guarding both by night and by day, and ward, which is now rarely used, having simply the meaning of guard, or protection, without reference to time.
    Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward.   --Spenser.
    Ward, guard, or custodia, is chiefly applied to the daytime, in order to apprehend rioters, and robbers on the highway . . .  Watch, is properly applicable to the night only, . . . and it begins when ward ends, and ends when that begins.   --Blackstone.
 2. One who watches, or those who watch; a watchman, or a body of watchmen; a sentry; a guard.
    Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch; go your way, make it as sure as ye can.   --Matt. xxvii. 65.
 3. The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.
 He upbraids Iago, that he made him
 Brave me upon the watch.   --Shak.
 4. The period of the night during which a person does duty as a sentinel, or guard; the time from the placing of a sentinel till his relief; hence, a division of the night.
    I did stand my watch upon the hill.   --Shak.
 Might we but hear . . .
 Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock
 Count the night watches to his feathery dames.   --Milton.
 5. A small timepiece, or chronometer, to be carried about the person, the machinery of which is moved by a spring.
 Note: ☞ Watches are often distinguished by the kind of escapement used, as an anchor watch, a lever watch, a chronometer watch, etc. (see the Note under Escapement, n., 3); also, by the kind of case, as a gold or silver watch, an open-faced watch, a hunting watch, or hunter, etc.
 6. Naut. (a) An allotted portion of time, usually four hour for standing watch, or being on deck ready for duty.   Cf. Dogwatch.  (b) That part, usually one half, of the officers and crew, who together attend to the working of a vessel for an allotted time, usually four hours. The watches are designated as the port watch, and the starboard watch.
 Anchor watch Naut., a detail of one or more men who keep watch on deck when a vessel is at anchor.
 To be on the watch, to be looking steadily for some event.
 Watch and ward Law, the charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace. --Wharton.  --Burrill.
 Watch and watch Naut., the regular alternation in being on watch and off watch of the two watches into which a ship's crew is commonly divided.
 Watch barrel, the brass box in a watch, containing the mainspring.
 Watch bell Naut., a bell struck when the half-hour glass is run out, or at the end of each half hour. --Craig.
 Watch bill Naut., a list of the officers and crew of a ship as divided into watches, with their stations. --Totten.
 Watch case, the case, or outside covering, of a watch; also, a case for holding a watch, or in which it is kept.
 Watch chain. Same as watch guard, below.
 Watch clock, a watchman's clock; see under Watchman.
 Watch fire, a fire lighted at night, as a signal, or for the use of a watch or guard.
 Watch glass. (a) A concavo-convex glass for covering the face, or dial, of a watch; -- also called watch crystal. (b) Naut. A half-hour glass used to measure the time of a watch on deck.
 Watch guard, a chain or cord by which a watch is attached to the person.
 Watch gun Naut., a gun sometimes fired on shipboard at 8 p. m., when the night watch begins.
 Watch light, a low-burning lamp used by watchers at night; formerly, a candle having a rush wick.
 Watch night, The last night of the year; -- so called by the Methodists, Moravians, and others, who observe it by holding religious meetings lasting until after midnight.
 Watch paper, an old-fashioned ornament for the inside of a watch case, made of paper cut in some fanciful design, as a vase with flowers, etc.
 Watch tackle Naut., a small, handy purchase, consisting of a tailed double block, and a single block with a hook.
 An·chor n.
 1. A iron instrument which is attached to a ship by a cable (rope or chain), and which, being cast overboard, lays hold of the earth by a fluke or hook and thus retains the ship in a particular station.
 Note: ☞ The common anchor consists of a straight bar called a shank, having at one end a transverse bar called a stock, above which is a ring for the cable, and at the other end the crown, from which branch out two or more arms with flukes, forming with the shank a suitable angle to enter the ground.
 Note: Formerly the largest and strongest anchor was the sheet anchor (hence, Fig., best hope or last refuge), called also waist anchor. Now the bower and the sheet anchor are usually alike. Then came the best bower and the small bower (so called from being carried on the bows). The stream anchor is one fourth the weight of the bower anchor. Kedges or kedge anchors are light anchors used in warping.
 2. Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.
 3. Fig.: That which gives stability or security; that on which we place dependence for safety.
    Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul.   --Heb. vi. 19.
 4. Her. An emblem of hope.
 5. Arch. (a) A metal tie holding adjoining parts of a building together. (b) Carved work, somewhat resembling an anchor or arrowhead; -- a part of the ornaments of certain moldings.  It is seen in the echinus, or egg-and-anchor (called also egg-and-dart, egg-and-tongue) ornament.
 6. Zool. One of the anchor-shaped spicules of certain sponges; also, one of the calcareous spinules of certain Holothurians, as in species of Synapta.
 6. Television an achorman, anchorwoman, or anchorperson.
 Anchor ice. See under Ice. --Anchor light See the vocabulary.
 Anchor ring. Math. Same as Annulus, 2 (b).
 Anchor shot See the vocabulary.
 Anchor space See the vocabulary.
 Anchor stock Naut., the crossbar at the top of the shank at right angles to the arms.
 Anchor watch See the vocabulary.
 The anchor comes home, when it drags over the bottom as the ship drifts.
 Foul anchor, the anchor when it hooks, or is entangled with, another anchor, or with a cable or wreck, or when the slack cable is entangled.
 The anchor is acockbill, when it is suspended perpendicularly from the cathead, ready to be let go.
 The anchor is apeak, when the cable is drawn in so tight as to bring the ship directly over it.
 The anchor is atrip, or aweigh, when it is lifted out of the ground.
 The anchor is awash, when it is hove up to the surface of the water.
 At anchor, anchored.
 To back an anchor, to increase the holding power by laying down a small anchor ahead of that by which the ship rides, with the cable fastened to the crown of the latter to prevent its coming home.
 To cast anchor, to drop or let go an anchor to keep a ship at rest.
 To cat the anchor, to hoist the anchor to the cathead and pass the ring-stopper.
 To fish the anchor, to hoist the flukes to their resting place (called the bill-boards), and pass the shank painter.
 To weigh anchor, to heave or raise the anchor so as to sail away.
 Anchor watch. Naut. A detail of one or more men who keep watch on deck at night when a vessel is at anchor.
 ◄ ►