WATCH OVER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does watch over mean? 

• WATCH OVER (verb)
  The verb WATCH OVER has 1 sense:

1. follow with the eyes or the mind

  Familiarity information: WATCH OVER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATCH OVER (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Follow with the eyes or the mind

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

follow; keep an eye on; observe; watch; watch over

Context example:

She followed the men with the binoculars

Hypernyms (to "watch over" is one way to...):

check; check into; check out; check over; check up on; go over; look into; suss out (examine so as to determine accuracy, quality, or condition)

Verb group:

follow; trace (follow, discover, or ascertain the course of development of something)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "watch over"):

keep tabs on (keep a record on or watch attentively)

guard (to keep watch over)

invigilate; proctor (watch over (students taking an exam, to prevent cheating))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The children watch over the ball

 Context examples 

And there was a good fairy too, who was fond of the princess, and helped her mother to watch over her.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

This battle is but begun, and in the end we shall win—so sure as that God sits on high to watch over His children.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Dorothy and Toto and the Lion lay down to sleep, while the Woodman and the Scarecrow kept watch over them as usual.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A gleam of sunshine took her quite by surprise; she looked round; the clouds were parting, and she instantly returned to the window to watch over and encourage the happy appearance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Meg, dear, be prudent, watch over your sisters, consult Hannah, and in any perplexity, go to Mr. Laurence.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“May the four Evangelists watch over you! May the twelve Apostles bear you up! May the blessed army of martyrs direct your feet and lead you to eternal bliss!”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

However, Mercury’s position retrograde may delay things or bring up inaccuracies, so be patient and watch over details.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The chief evil of their presence in the house, said Agnes, is that I cannot be as near papa as I could wish—Uriah Heep being so much between us—and cannot watch over him, if that is not too bold a thing to say, as closely as I would.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was necessary that I should return without delay to Geneva, there to watch over the lives of those I so fondly loved and to lie in wait for the murderer, that if any chance led me to the place of his concealment, or if he dared again to blast me by his presence, I might, with unfailing aim, put an end to the existence of the monstrous image which I had endued with the mockery of a soul still more monstrous.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I duly relieved Van Helsing in his watch over Lucy.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)