Word.ws English Dictionary

night-watchman

night-watchman is the alternative spelling of night watchman.

Meaning of night watchman

Noun

night watchman (plural night watchmen)

  1. (historical) Prior to police forces, a person appointed by a town or city to walk the streets at night and guard the burghers from felons and robbers.
  2. A person who guards (usually at a building) at night.
    • We can hear the night watchman click his flashlight / Ask himself if it's him or them that's insane1966, Bob Dylan, “Visions of Johanna”, in Blonde on Blonde
  3. A lower order batter to play the last overs in low light to save better batters for the next day's play.

Forms of night-watchman

pluralnight-watchmen

Phrases with night-watchman

Questions about night-watchman

What is night-watchman the alternative spelling of?
Night-watchman is the alternative spelling of night watchman.

Words near night-watchman in the dictionary

  1. night-watcher
  2. night-watchers
  3. night-watches
  4. night-watching
  5. night-watchings
  6. night-watchman
  7. night-watchman state
  8. night-watchman states
  9. night-watchmen
  10. Nightall
  11. Nightalls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: night-watchman (page history and authors); night watchman (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.

Last updated:

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