Word.ws English Dictionary

keeping watch

keeping watch is the present participle and gerund of keep watch.

Meaning of keep watch

Verb

keep watch (third-person singular simple present keeps watch, present participle keeping watch, simple past and past participle kept watch)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To guard; to watch over someone or something.
    • In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    stand guard

Questions about keeping watch

What is keeping watch the present participle and gerund of?
Keeping watch is the present participle and gerund of keep watch.

Words near keeping watch in the dictionary

  1. keeping up appearances
  2. keeping up with
  3. keeping up with the Joneses
  4. keeping up with the times
  5. keeping vigil
  6. keeping watch
  7. keeping wicket
  8. keeping-room
  9. keeping-rooms
  10. keepings
  11. keepings off

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: keeping watch (page history and authors); keep watch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “keeping watch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/keeping_watch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.