[-ING1.]
1. The action of the verb WATCH in various senses. lit. and fig.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xiii. (Mark), 131. The bischapis … gret wechyne mad besyly, to tak sancte marke, for invy.
1479–81. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 99. Item, payd to the Clerke and paris for mete and drynke, for wecchynge of the Sepulcre [etc.] xxiij d.
a. 1529. Skelton, Bouge of Court, 352. His hede was heuy for watchynge ouer nyghte.
1530. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 136. For the wetching and keping of this gude tovne baitht be nicht and day.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 78. For sleeping England long time haue I watcht, Watching breeds leannesse.
a. 1670. Spalding, Tromb. Chas. I. (Bannatyne Club), I. 120. The marquess wondering at the watching of his lodgeing.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 4 Feb. 1685. Tired indeede as he was with griefe and watching.
1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarb., V. i. Of all modes of suspense, the watching for a loitering mistress is the worst.
1830. Act 11 Geo. IV., c. 27 § 1. To make Provision for the lighting and watching of the several Parishes in England and Wales.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 444. The king had been exhausted by long watching and by many violent emotions. He now retired to rest.
1903. Mrs. De La Pasture, Cornelius, xvi. 183. She is very far from strong, and requires a deal of watching over.
1911. Wace, Prophecy Jew. & Chr., ix. 172. He taught His disciples and ourselves to live in a constant state of watching for the complete and final revelation of that kingdom.
b. An act or instance of this.
c. 1400. Sc. Trojan War (Horstm.), II. 614. Gregeois, yharnande with mayne & mude The wachingis [v.r. vachingis] for to execude Of þare fraudfull gyle but delay.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 247 b. This honour that the chrysten people rendreth to theyr lorde … is compared to a custody or watchynge.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, V. xxiii. (S.T.S.), II. 225. The romanis in þe capitoll war sowpit & oursett with continuall statiouns & watchingis.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 387. Leonato. My Lord, I am for you, though it cost mee ten nights watchings.
1641. W. Cartwright, Lady Errant, I. ii. Hard watchings and rough Guards Fill and make up the field.
1669. Stillingfl., Serm., ix. (1673), 167. Their frequent watchings, fastings, hunger and thirst.
1704. Nelson, Fest. & Fasts, II. v. (1739), 501. It was celebrated … with solemn Watchings.
1793. Martyn, Lang. Bot., s.v. Vigiliæ, These Vigiliæ or Watchings are performed at determined hours of the day, when plants open, expand, and shut their flowers daily.
1798. Sophia Lee, Canterb. T., Young Lady’s T., II. 194. Hours were past by the tender, agitated Emily, in anxious watchings.
1855. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 80. They had to wait for the successive ‘watching’ or each buoy, as its first appearance on the surface is technically termed.
1890. Stevenson, In South Seas, II. vi. (1900), 198. It is the dead man’s kindred and next friends who thus deprecate his fury with nocturnal watchings.
c. Sc. Watching and warding: see WATCH v. 6 b and 10.
1579. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 217. Subject to all taxationis, wacheing, warding, and utheris impositionis liand upoun the said burgh.
1600. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 378/1. Quod omnes in dicto burgo manentes … auxilia ferrent cum burgensibus ad lie watching, wairding, [etc.].
1711. E. Ward, Vulgus Brit., VIII. 95. For Watching, Warding, and Train-banding, Tho’ Customs of an ancient standing.
1765–8. Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., II. iv. § 8. This service of watching and warding … is due by the burgesses within the … territory of the borough.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scot., I. 106. The citizens [of Edinburgh] performed a species of personal service for defence of the town, called watching and warding.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., 117. The reddendo (now merely nominal) of watching and warding.
2. The state or condition of being awake, wakefulness; often, wakefulness from disinclination or incapacity for sleep; an instance of this.
c. 1550. H. Lloyd, Treas. Health, viii. C viii. Agaynst to much watchynges…. The Sygnes. That he can not slepe after his accustomyd fashyon.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 250. Yea and after a man hath recouered his health, yet is he neuerthelesse disquieted by much watching for a long time after.
1669. E. Maynwaring, Preserv. Health, 90. The Life of Man … spends its whole course in these two different states, Sleep and Watching: the one appointed for Rest and Ease, the other for Action and Labour.
1672. Wiseman, Treat. Wounds, II. ii. 8. The Bullet not having been drawn out,… occasioned great pain with Inflammation, great heat and watchings.
1799. Underwood, Dis. Childhood (ed. 4), I. 61. Watching, or want of sleep is frequently a symptom of the foregoing complaints.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Pervigilium, term for disinclination to sleep; watching.
† 3. = WATCH sb. 1 b. Obs.–1
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. xii. 311/1. A Watching of Nightingales.
4. attrib. and Comb., as watching-hole, -place; watching brief, a brief instructing counsel to ‘watch’ a case; also fig.; watching candle, a candle used at the ‘watching’ of a shrine or of a corpse; also transf.; † watching-chamber, (a) ? a guard-room adjoining a royal apartment; (b) a room adjoining a shrine, to be occupied by a watcher; † watching lamp, cf. watching-candle; watching-rate = watch-rate.
1886. Daily News, 17 July, 2/1. *‘Watching’ briefs are held by the Attorney General … and Sir H. James, Q.C. for Sir Charles Dilke.
1905. H. G. Wells, Kipps, III. i. § 4. Ann held a watching brief for herself.
1526. Will of T. Stow, in Beauties of Eng. & W., X. III. 261. Item to have on every aultar a *wacchyng candle burning from vi of the clocke tyll it be past seven.
a. 1592. Greenes Vision, D 4. The Mother and the daughter sette vppe a watching Candle, and sat verie mannerlie by a good fier, looking when [he] should wake.
1634. S. R., Noble Soldier, IV. ii. Beauty was turn’d into a watching Candle that went out stinking.
1533. in W. H. St. J. Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), I. 253. [A] Galary betwene the Kynges halle and hys *watching chambre. Ibid., I. 255. The Quenes watchyng chambre.
1856. Builder, 14 June, 325/3. The Watching Chamber on the north side of the Saint’s Chapel [St. Albans], wherein a monk was posted as a guard of honour to the shrine.
1862. R. J. King, Eastern Cathedr., 22 (Oxford). The watching chamber which, here as elsewhere, adjoined the shrine for the protection of the gold and jewels which enriched it.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Africa (1902), 76/1. I accordingly ordered the usual *watching-hole to be constructed.
1597. 1st Pt. Ret. fr. Parnass., I. i. 77. If they have lived by a *watchinge lampe, Prysinge each minute of a flyinge houre.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xiii. Sambo … saw the little girl … jump up from her *watching-place in the window.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Parish, iv. *Watching-rates, lighting-rates, paving-rates.
