keep vigil

present singular third person keeps vigil · participle present keeping vigil · participle past kept vigil · past kept vigil

1. To wait and watch, especially overnight.

   Sven, for the most part, stayed in the backdrop hovering nervously near the parlor window, where he now kept vigil for newly arriving guests .

   2013, John E. Rawson, Blind Vigil, page 102

   2 more examples

   We started outside with the fire, then processed into the chapel of the retreat center where we kept vigil for the rest of the night by proclaiming the readings, chanting the psalms, and sitting in prolonged periods of reflective silence.

   2013, Joe Paprocki, D. Todd Williamson, Great is the Mystery, page 179

   a ruelle is a small lane , but in the bedrooms of the French monarchs of the Golden Age it denoted a narrow area beside the royal bed, where attendants kept vigil over their sleeping monarchs and into which the king's mistresses might.be introduced.

   2015, Malcolm Lowry, Miguel Mota, Paul Tiessen, The 1940 Under the Volcano

2. To observe the deceased overnight.

   Rafael died this morning, and this afternoon we are going to keep vigil over him.

   Synonyms: have a wake