WATCHER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does watcher mean? 

• WATCHER (noun)
  The noun WATCHER has 3 senses:

1. a close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind)

2. a guard who keeps watch

3. a person who keeps a devotional vigil by a sick bed or by a dead body

  Familiarity information: WATCHER used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATCHER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A close observer; someone who looks at something (such as an exhibition of some kind)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

looker; spectator; viewer; watcher; witness

Context example:

sky watchers discovered a new star

Hypernyms ("watcher" is a kind of...):

beholder; observer; perceiver; percipient (a person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "watcher"):

bystander (a nonparticipant spectator)

peeper; Peeping Tom; voyeur (a viewer who enjoys seeing the sex acts or sex organs of others)

starer (a viewer who gazes fixedly (often with hostility))

spy (a secret watcher; someone who secretly watches other people)

rubberneck; rubbernecker (a person who stares inquisitively)

playgoer; theatergoer; theatregoer (someone who attends the theater)

looker-on; onlooker (someone who looks on)

ogler (a viewer who gives a flirtatious or lewd look at another person)

motion-picture fan; moviegoer (someone who goes to see movies)

gawker (a spectator who stares stupidly without intelligent awareness)

eyewitness (a spectator who can describe what happened)

cheerer (a spectator who shouts encouragement)

browser (a viewer who looks around casually without seeking anything in particular)

Derivation:

watch (observe with attention)

watch (look attentively)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A guard who keeps watch

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

security guard; watcher; watchman

Hypernyms ("watcher" is a kind of...):

guard (a person who keeps watch over something or someone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "watcher"):

bank guard (a security guard at a bank)

fire watcher ((during World War II in Britain) someone whose duty was to watch for fires caused by bombs dropped from the air)

lookout; lookout man; picket; scout; sentinel; sentry; spotter; watch (a person employed to keep watch for some anticipated event)

night watchman (a watchman who works during the night)

patroller (someone on patrol duty; an individual or a member of a group that patrols an area)

port watcher; portwatcher (a watchman on a wharf)

Holonyms ("watcher" is a member of...):

private security force; security force (a privately employed group hired to protect the security of a business or industry)

Derivation:

watch (be vigilant, be on the lookout or be careful)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person who keeps a devotional vigil by a sick bed or by a dead body

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("watcher" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

 Context examples 

He was small and very plainly dressed and the look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher’s inclination.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This second trip fairly aroused the watchers along shore.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The wind had by this time backed to the east, and there was a shudder amongst the watchers on the cliff as they realized the terrible danger in which she now was.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Not all Mars watchers are thrilled with the idea of a global dust storm, which can adversely affect ongoing missions.

(Dust Storms Linked to Gas Escape from Mars Atmosphere, NASA)

From this convenient retreat, the watchers were being watched and the trackers tracked.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In the large kitchen, where I dimly saw bacon and ropes of onions hanging from the beams, the watchers were clustered together, in various attitudes, about a table, purposely moved away from the great chimney, and brought near the door.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I should not shrink from you with disgust as I did from her: in your quiet moments you should have no watcher and no nurse but me; and I could hang over you with untiring tenderness, though you gave me no smile in return; and never weary of gazing into your eyes, though they had no longer a ray of recognition for me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A full moon was beginning to rise and peered redly through the upper edges of the fog, and this increased our haste, for it was plain, before we came forth again, that all would be as bright as day, and our departure exposed to the eyes of any watchers.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It was one of the watchers of the night before who had promised to come back so he cooked breakfast for three which he and the other man ate together.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)