[WATCH sb.]
1. = NIGHT-LIGHT 2 b, esp. in the form of a slow-burning candle with a rush wick.
1628. Digby’s Private Mem. (1827), 67. After she was in bed … she read it by the help of the watch-light which stood burning by her.
1695. Congreve, Love for L., III. xiii. Nurse, let me have a Watch-Light.
1715. Addison, Drummer, II. i. Item, a dozen Pound of Watch-Lights for the Use of the Servants.
a. 1732. Gay, Story of Apparition, 88. Swift retir’d the maid, The watch-lights burn, tuckt warm in bed was laid The hardy stranger.
1775. G. White, Selborne, To Barrington, 1 Nov. These rushes give a good clear light. Watch-lights (coated with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, ‘darkness visible.’
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 204. Luminous Bottle, or Watch-light.
c. 1865. Letheby, in J. Wylde, Circ. Sci., I. 94/2. The rushes are peeled on three sides for the best light, and on two only for watch-lights.
2. A light carried by a watchman.
1855. Browning, Andrea del Sarto, 209. See, it is settled dusk now; there’s a star; Morello’s gone, the watch-lights show the wall.
