babysit

Verb

babysit (third-person singular simple present babysits, present participle babysitting, simple past and past participle babysat or (uncommon) babysitted)

1. (ambitransitive) To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.
   • My daughter is babysitting for the Morgans at number ten, who are going out on a date night.
   • We need someone to babysit our children while we go to the theater.

   Synonyms:

   childsit

2. (informal, transitive) To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a precaution should an emergency happen.
   • The reaction takes several hours, so we leave a graduate student to babysit it.
3. (informal, transitive) To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed; to have to help or coax too much.
   • He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done.
   • It was observed by the FBI personnel assigned to “babysit” agent Tricycle that his egregiously excessive spending was causing unwanted attention […]2016, Christopher Vasey, Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories, page 175

   Synonyms:

   coddle