forewatch

present singular third person forewatches · participle present forewatching · participle past forewatched · past forewatched

1. transitiveTo look out for; watch over

   To learn, to know, how energies may pass / I would forewatch the waters near the moon / To spell the tidal change — and feel it chance [...]

   1908, Gerda Dalliba, An Earth Poem, and Other Poems

   2 more examples

   Ah! vanity is all to him who knows (Well warn'd by this!) his day's a fleeting cloud! —'Tis sacred wisdom to forewatch the close! To eye each hour—the Coffin and the Shroud!

   1835, G. M., The Fall of Man and His Redemption

   The spring-tight coil of days unrolls for them, / Their little and deep long eyes forewatch the dead — / The mouse-eyed Fates can number the known times / He will remember this, the thing unsaid.

   1968, Mark Van Doren, The autobiography of Mark Van Doren

plural forewatches

1. A foreward positioned guard or sentry; vanguard

   It was the forewatch who spotted it first bearing down from the front. They were under attack!

   2012, Jeane Heimberger Candido, Shepherd's Song

   1 more example

   The forewatch on the Trident called out, "Ho! Pharos ahead!" Straining his eyes, Pilate could see only a tiny blemish of luminous orange on the southeastern horizon.

   1972, Paul L. Maier, Pontius Pilate

2. An early watch

   Jason takes the forewatches — 6 to noon, 6 to midnight — and Jimmy takes the afterwatches.

   1980, Mary B. Durant, Michael Harwood, On the Road With John James Audubon