watching

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of watch.

   She was watching the door for any sign of movement.

   Watching the news, he grew increasingly worried about the storm.

   Note

   The same -ing form does two jobs. After a form of be it builds the progressive (she was watching a movie). Where a noun would stand, it acts as a gerund that still takes a direct object, as in like watching an alcoholic. It carries every meaning of watch, from viewing to guarding. In the vigil sense it needs no object at all: watching through the night.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of keeping one's eyes on a person or thing, whether to observe it or to guard it.

   His careful watching of the children prevented several accidents that afternoon.

   The long watching of the harbor finally paid off when the missing boat appeared.

   Similarobservation, surveillance, monitoring, supervision, vigilance

   Oppositeneglect

   Note

   This noun can be counted, which the gerund cannot, and its plural names a run of separate acts rather than one activity. Caldwell in the Christian Herald of 1819 sets "cares and watchings" beside toils and tears. William Gilmore Simms's The Sword and the Distaff (1852) strings together "skulkings, peepings, watchings." The plural fits naturally in such lists of -ing nouns, where each word stands for a habit.

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