watch and ward

Definitions

1. 1

   The charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in…

   The charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace.

2. 2

   Uninterrupted vigilance.

   • The narrow seas around these isles, where British admirals keep watch and ward upon the marches of the Atlantic Ocean, are subject to the turbulent sway of the West Wind.
   • 1917, Lee Wilson Dodd, "To America" (poem), in Fifes and Drums You need A starker breed To cherish you and guard, Keep watch and ward, Or strike if strike they must!
3. 3

   To keep constant watch over

   • we might have been carried in swift safety, and watched and warded by well-paid pointsmen, for half the present fares

The neighborhood