watchman

plural watchmen

1. A man set to watch: a man who keeps guard, especially one who guards a building, or the streets of a city, by night; (loosely) any such person of any sex or gender.

   Near-synonyms: watcher, watchwoman, bouncer, doorman

   5 more examples

   The visits of the watchman to that (then) obscure and ill-inhabited neighborhood were more regulated by his indolence than his duty; and Clarence knew that it would be in vain to listen for his cry or tarry for his assistance.

   1829, Edward Bulwer Lytton, chapter XVIII, in The Disowned

   Well, it so happened that Stine and the cook were sitting in their room one evening, mending and darning their things; it was near bedtime, for the watchman had already sung out "Ten o'clock," but somehow the darning and the sewing went on very slowly indeed[.]

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 8

   Watchmen are stationed continuously at each end of the bridge, and the main spans are patrolled twice during the night.

   1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 149

   In 1972, a night watchman patrolling a hotel-office complex noticed that the basement garage door had been taped open and, attributing this to the carelessness of a maintenance worker earlier that day, peeled the tape off.

   2004 September 5, Laura Miller, “Imagine”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2021

   A black night watchman at a factory is accused of murdering a young white secretary who works at the factory, but it turns out the factory owner accidentally killed her when she refused his advances.

   2010, Bob McCann, Encyclopedia of African American Actresses in Film and Television, page 51

   Synonyms: watcher, watchwoman, bouncer, doorman

plural Watchmans

1. A surname.