Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To watch, especially a dead body; observe funeral rites for.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- verb obsolete To keep watch over; to keep awake.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive, obsolete To
watch ; keep watch over;guard . - verb transitive To
awaken thoroughly; keepawake . - verb transitive To spend waking; watch through.
- verb intransitive To keep awake; watch.
- verb transitive, obsolete (of a corpse or dead body) To
watch over ;observe funeral rites for.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English bewaken ("to watch"), from Old English *bewacian ("to watch, observe"), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”), *wakjanan (“to wake, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be awake, be fresh or cheerful”), equivalent to be- + wake. Cognate with Dutch bewaken ("to watch over, guard"), German bewachen ("to guard"), Swedish bevaka ("to watch, guard, monitor"). More at be-, wake.
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Examples
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