Word.ws English Dictionary

on one's watch

on one's watch adverb: during the period of time when one is in a position of authority or responsibility.

Adverb

on one's watch

  1. (US, idiomatic) During the period of time when one is in a position of authority or responsibility.
    • [Robert] Gates emerged from the first week of hearings bearing only a few scratches. […] He even vowed to resign if illegal activity occurred on his watch.1991 September 30, Michael Duffy, “The CIA: See No Evil, Hear No Evil”, in Time, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2016
    • Woods dismissed the idea that anyone could get away with election fraud on her watch.2005 February 19, Amy Silvers, “100 miles per hour for 102 years”, in Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

Questions about on one's watch

What does on one's watch mean?
On one's watch means during the period of time when one is in a position of authority or responsibility.
What part of speech is on one's watch?
On one's watch is an adverb.

Words near on one's watch in the dictionary

  1. on one's side
  2. on one's tod
  3. on one's todd
  4. on one's toes
  5. on one's uppers
  6. on one's watch
  7. on one's way
  8. on ones
  9. on opposite sides of the barricades
  10. on or about
  11. on order

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on one's 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-on one's watch.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on one's watch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_one%27s_watch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.