watchnight
Syllables: watch·night/ˈwɒtʃnaɪt/US/ˈwɑt͡ʃnaɪt/
watchnight noun: a religious service involving a review of the past year and preparation for the year ahead participated in by Methodists and members of other Christian denominations which usually starts late on New Year's Eve and ends after midnight on New Year's Day; hence, the night that begins on December 31 and ends on January 1.
Noun
watchnight (plural watchnights)
- A religious service involving a review of the past year and preparation for the year ahead participated in by Methodists and members of other Christian denominations which usually starts late on New Year's Eve and ends after midnight on New Year's Day; hence, the night that begins on December 31 and ends on January 1.
- Holonym: New Year's (holiday-time sense)
- Near-synonym: New Year's Eve (not identical to watchnight: New Year's Eve is the entire day before New Year's Day (or specifically its evening), whereas watchnight is the night that begins at sundown on New Year's Eve and ends with sunrise on New Year's Day)
- Synonyms:
- New Year's Eve
- A monthly or quarterly religious service participated in by Methodists which extended past midnight.
- The ſpiritual concerns, ſhall be managed by the preachers; who have ever appointed leaders, choſen ſtewards, and admitted members into, and expelled them, from the ſociety, conſulting their brethren the leaders and ſtewards, according to the rules before mentioned. The preachers alſo as hitherto...1779, John Wesley, Minutes of Several Conversations, between the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. and the Preachers in Connection with Him. Containing the Form of Discipline Established Among the Preachers and...
- We offer no apology for the Methodist watchnight service. It needs none. In the first days of Methodism, indeed, this service was misrepresented and reviled by those who sought occasion against us; […] The Wesleyan watchnight dates from the earliest times of the United Societies. We have this...1861 December, John Reacher, “The End of the Year, and its Watchnight”, in The Christian Miscellany, and Family Visiter. For the Year 1861, volume VII, 2nd series, London: Published by John Mason...
- Any religious or spiritual vigil.
- To spend a whole night, from sunset to sunrise, in vigil, is locally reckoned as two "watchnights" (in Kekchi, yo'lec). On occasion when one "watchnight" is deemed sufficient, people go home to sleep after midnight. When a series of 13 "watchnights" are required, a full night vigil will normally...1983, Belizean Studies, Belize City: Belize Institute of Social Research and Action, →OCLC, page 27
- Private vigils [among the Kekchi or Q'eqchi' people] may also be undertaken for specific purposes including curing and sorcery. Whether the purpose be good or evil, 13 "watchnights" are reckoned as the ideal number to observe. That is also the number of "watchnights" an individual or whole...1986, Jon Schackt, One God, Two Temples: Schismatic Process in a Kekchi Village [Occasional Papers (Institutt for sosialantropologi, Universitetet i Oslo); 13], Oslo, Norway: Department of Social...
- A night watchman.
- Next morning a flustered watchnight waited for Bill. 'What is this t'ing?' he indignantly demanded. 'In the night I sit watching, then Madam come and pour a bucket of water on me. Next a t'ief-man come. I fight him but he too strong and he take my bicycle ...[…][']1958, Isobel Ryan, Black Man's Palaver, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC, page 62
- He gave the watchnight a big sum of money to tell the court that he saw Ayo carrying those drugs into his room. He also induced the chemist to give evidence against Ayo that he was not buying those drugs for patients.1969, Niyi Oniororo, Persevere Dear Brother, 2nd edition, Ibadan, Nigeria: Printed at Ayo-olu Finery Press, →OCLC, page 39
Examples of watchnight in a sentence
- This was the first watchnight meeting among the Methodists.1872, L[uke] Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., Founder of the Methodists. … In Three Volumes, volume I, New York...
- We offer no apology for the Methodist watchnight service.1861 December, John Reacher, “The End of the Year, and its Watchnight”, in The Christian Miscellany, and Family Visiter. For the Year 1861...
- [Joseph] Pilmore conducted the first watchnight in Virginia, lasting from 8:00 p.m. until midnight, on Sunday, April 25, 1773.1976, Frank Baker, From Wesley to Asbury: Studies in Early American Methodism, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, →ISBN:
- Watchnights were further times of prayer and witness, late into the night, and modelled by Wesley on the vigils of feasts in the primitive church.1983, R. W. Gribben, “Methodism”, in Gordon S. Wakefield, editor, The SCM Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, SCM Press, →ISBN, page 266:
Synonyms of watchnight
Forms of watchnight
| plural | watchnights |
|---|---|
| alternative form | watch night |
| alternative form | Watch Night |
| alternative form | watch-night |
Origin of watchnight
From watch + night.
Questions about watchnight
- What does watchnight mean?
- Watchnight means a religious service involving a review of the past year and preparation for the year ahead participated in by Methodists and members of other Christian denominations which usually starts late on New Year's Eve and ends after midnight on New Year's Day; hence, the night that begins on December 31 and ends on January 1.
- How do you use watchnight in a sentence?
- This was the first watchnight meeting among the Methodists.
- What part of speech is watchnight?
- Watchnight is a noun.
- How do you pronounce watchnight?
- Watchnight is pronounced /ˈwɒtʃnaɪt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of watchnight?
- The plural of watchnight is watchnights.
Words near watchnight in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: watchnight (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-watchnight.wav.
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