Word.ws English Dictionary

watching brief

watching brief noun: in criminal cases, a brief to represent a client who is not a direct party to the suit, and to serve as an observer.

Noun

watching brief (plural watching briefs)

  1. In criminal cases, a brief to represent a client who is not a direct party to the suit, and to serve as an observer.
  2. The monitoring, by an archaeologist employed by a developer, of excavation and other building work in order to identify and record any archaeological finds and features.

Forms of watching brief

pluralwatching briefs

Questions about watching brief

What does watching brief mean?
Watching brief means in criminal cases, a brief to represent a client who is not a direct party to the suit, and to serve as an observer.
What part of speech is watching brief?
Watching brief is a noun.
What is the plural of watching brief?
The plural of watching brief is watching briefs.

Words near watching brief in the dictionary

  1. watchhouses
  2. watchie
  3. watchies
  4. watchin'
  5. watching
  6. watching brief
  7. watching briefs
  8. watching grass grow
  9. watching it
  10. watching like a hawk
  11. watching one's ass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: watching brief (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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