WATCHING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does watching mean? 

• WATCHING (noun)
  The noun WATCHING has 1 sense:

1. the act of observing; taking a patient look

  Familiarity information: WATCHING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATCHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of observing; taking a patient look

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

observance; observation; watching

Hypernyms ("watching" is a kind of...):

look; looking; looking at (the act of directing the eyes toward something and perceiving it visually)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "watching"):

monitoring (the act of observing something (and sometimes keeping a record of it))

sighting (the act of observing)

stargazing (observation of the stars)

Derivation:

watch (observe with attention)

 Context examples 

In medicine, watching a patient’s condition but not giving treatment unless symptoms appear or change.

(Observation, NCI Dictionary)

Astronomers were watching when comet P/2016 BA14 flew past Earth on March 22.

(Comet Flying by Earth Observed with Radar and Infrared, NASA)

I am here watching you, and I can promise that nothing will happen.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Watching something and taking note of what happens.

(Observation, NCI Thesaurus)

Closely watching a patient's condition but not giving treatment unless there are changes in test results.

(Patient Observation, NCI Dictionary)

He was looking about, he was going to the door, he was watching for the sound of other carriages,—impatient to begin, or afraid of being always near her.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I remained, while the storm lasted, watching its progress with curiosity and delight.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

“Yes, I’ve been watching it,” was Wolf Larsen’s calm reply.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I thought of him now—in his room—watching the sunrise; hoping I should soon come to say I would stay with him and be his.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And as I looked I suddenly became aware that a face was watching me out of one of the upper windows.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)