keep watch

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

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo guard; to watch over someone or something.

   In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.

   1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms: stand guard