watch and ward

noun

1. a continuous watch or vigil, by or as by night and by day, especially for the purpose of guarding.

Word History and Origins

Origin of watch and ward¹

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400

Example Sentences

So successful a watch and ward had been established over the young lady by this judicious parent, that she had grown up highly ornamental, but perfectly helpless and useless.

From Literature

It is needless to say that the dead steersman has been reverently removed from the place where he held his honourable watch and ward till death—a steadfastness as noble as that of the young Casabianca—and placed in the mortuary to await inquest.

From Literature

Excerpted in H. L. Mencken’s The American Mercury, the book became a cause célèbre when the New England Watch and Ward Society banned the issue in which it appeared.

From The New Yorker

“After being forcibly removed they were kept under watch and ward by the armed guards of M/s Vedanta and no outsider was allowed to meet them. They were effectively being kept as prisoners.”

From New York Times

Not long after the Luddites first sabotaged knitting machines in Nottinghamshire in 1811, a Watch and Ward group was established to protect against rioting gangs.

From BBC