babysit

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.

   • My daughter is babysitting for the Morgans at number ten, who are going out on a date night.
   • We need someone to babysit our children while we go to the theater.
   • Bart eventually gets Laura to babysit while Homer and Marge eat at the Sea Captain’s all-you-can-eat seafood joint, The Frying Dutchman.
2. 2

   To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a…

   To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a precaution should an emergency happen.

   • The reaction takes several hours, so we leave a graduate student to babysit it.
3. 3

   To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed

   To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed; to have to help or coax too much.

   • He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done.
   • It was observed by the FBI personnel assigned to “babysit” agent Tricycle that his egregiously excessive spending was causing unwanted attention […]

The neighborhood

• neighborbabysitter
• neighborcatsit
• neighbordogsit
• neighborhousesit