[f. WATCH v. + -ER1.] One who watches or keeps watch.
a. gen. Often const. of, also over.
1572. Huloet (ed. Higins), Watcher, insidiator, insidiosus.
1611. B. Jonson, Catiline, III. i. That will Antonius make his care … And watch the watcher.
1812. Examiner, 24 Aug., 544/1. You heard the watchers exclaim—‘Put up the lights.’
1817. Keats, Sonn., xi. Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xlii. The smooth, sleek watcher of his slightest look and tone.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 556. Sir Valence … Whose kinsman left him watcher o’er his wife And two fair babes.
1885. Manch. Exam., 29 May, 5/3. Nothing is at present divulged to the public; but the eyes of interested watchers cannot be altogether closed.
b. said of the eye. poet.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. iv. 135. Loue hath chas’d sleepe from my enthralled eyes, And made them watchers of mine owne hearts sorrow.
1824. Hood, Two Swans, 108. On his doubtful face Gleam his unwearied eyes, red watchers of the place.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, IV. 306. To an eye like mine A lidless watcher of the public weal, Last night, their mask was patent.
c. One who keeps awake at night. Also night watcher.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fools (1874), I. 296. Or nyght watchers and beters of the stretes playnge by nyght on instrumentes and vsynge lyke Folyes whan tyme is to rest.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. ii. 71. Get on your Night-Gowne, least occasion call vs, And shew vs to be Watchers.
1861. Ld. Lytton & Fane, Tannhäuser, 78. She kneel’d, A faded watcher through the weary night,… In deep, perpetual prayer for him she loved.
1867. Lady Herbert, Cradle L., iv. 117. There two figures are kneeling, motionless and absorbed in prayer…. Still the two watchers kneel on.
d. One who watches by a sick bed, or by the dead.
c. 1555. Life Bp. Fisher (E.E.T.S.), 127. Whervpon two of the watchers tooke it [the dead body] vpon a halbert betweene them.
1764. Low-Life, 9. Women, called Watchers, in Hospitals, taking the Advantage of their Patients being asleep, to pick their Pockets, and convert to their own Use every Thing they find and like.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, V. 59. And at her head a follower of the camp … Sat watching like a watcher by the dead.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xxv. Then the watcher approaches the patient’s pillow.
1885. Lancet, 4 April, 630/1. Then there are the ‘watchers,’ who belong to the Jewish community, and combine the office of a nurse with certain religious functions.
e. One who is occupied in watching; a watchman, guard, sentry, or the like. Also with defining word, as river-watcher, NIGHT-WATCHER.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xlix. 61 b. On ye mountaynes & hylles costyng the see … were set watche men & watchers in dyuers maners.
1838. Bentley’s Misc., III. 274. An inspection was immediately carried on with an earnestness worthy of two watchers at a night-telegraph during a time of war.
1838. Dickens, Nickleby, xxii. The heavy footfall of the official watcher of the night.
1884. Manch. Exam., 10 Oct., 5/1. A river watcher … and two boys … lost their lives by the capsizing of a boat.
1896. H. G. Wells, Wheels of Chance, xvii. There are detectives of an inferior description—watchers.
1897. Crockett, Lads’ Love, xix. Nor did the gamekeepers and water-bailiffs—the ‘watchers’ as they were called—trouble their heads much about sleepy Rab.
1904. Times, 31 March, 9/4. Davies had first been an office boy and was now a watcher.
f. as the title of a class of angels or of angels generally; trans. Aramaic sīr, one who is wakeful.
1535. Coverdale, Dan. iv. 13. And beholde, a watcher (euen an holy angel) came downe from heauen.
1576. A. G[ilby], Test. 12 Patriarchs (1581), 11. For by such meanes were ye Watchers deceiued before the floud.
a. 1711. Ken, Psyche, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 312. They Watchers are, and with obsequious Wing Leave Heav’n for Earth, God’s Messages to bring.
1801. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XI. 20 (trans. Bk. Enoch) All were afraid, even the watchers of the host.
1846. Keble, Lyra Innoc. (ed. 3), 26. And by those features,… Heaven’s keen-eyed Watchers haply mete What mortals holy deem.
a. 1908. C. Bigg, Orig. Christianity, viii. (1909), 83. Six angels build the Tower; they are the Archangels, the First Created, the Watchers of Enoch.
† g. Astr. (pl.) = GUARD sb. 12, WARDEN sb.1 1 b.
1588. Ashley, Wagenar’s Mariners Mirr., B 2 b. When those Guardes or watchers of Vrsa minor being mounted higher. Ibid. The Guards or watchers are to be placed in this Instrument exactly opposite to their due place.
