watchman

From Middle English waccheman, equivalent to watch +‎ -man.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

watchman (plural watchmen)

1. One set to watch; a person who keeps guard, especially one who guards a building, or the streets of a city, by night.
   • 1829, Edward Bulwer Lytton, chapter XVIII, in The Disowned‎:

     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, H.L. Brækstad, transl., 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[.]

• night watchman

• watchdog
• watchwoman

• security guard