A watch that indicates fractions of a second by a hand that may be instantly stopped by pressure on a spring or catch, so as to record an exact moment or period of time; chiefly used for timing races.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 166. Provided he is truly try’d by a stop Watch.
1867. in C. A. Wheeler, Sportascrapiana (ed. 2), 180. Place a practical man with one of M‘Cabe’s stop-watches at the finishing point.
1888. Mrs. Custer, Tenting on Plains, xii. The General, with his stop-watch in hand, cheering me.
b. fig. Also attrib.
1806. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, VII. lxi. Automata—people who regulate all their thoughts, words, and actions, by the stop-watch.
1817. Examiner, No. 505. 554. The uncle … being a stop-watch person always in a hurry.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Old Benchers. He was at once … his guide, stop-watch, auditor, treasurer.
1896. Saintsbury, Hist. 19th Cent. Lit., v. 228. The critic looks only at the weak parts, and he judges the weak parts only by the stop-watch. [Cf. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, III. xii.]
