different between watch vs sight

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w?t??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /w?t??/, /w?t??/
• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /w?t??/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Etymology 1

As a noun, from Middle English wacche, from Old English wæ??e. See below for verb form.

Noun

watch (plural watches)

1. A portable or wearable timepiece.

2. The act of guarding and observing someone or something.
   • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses

     All the long night their mournful watch they keep.

3. A particular time period when guarding is kept.
4. A person or group of people who guard.
5. The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.
6. (nautical) A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch, port watch.
7. (nautical) A period of time on duty, usually four hours in length; the officers and crew who tend the working of a vessel during the same watch. (FM 55–501).
8. The act of seeing, or viewing, for a period of time.
   • 2016, Andrew Bullock, David Brent REVIEW: Life on the Road goes from painfully funny to just plain painful. Ouch (in Sunday Express, 11 August)

     The first third of the film is laugh after laugh; […] But half an hour in and this movie gets unnervingly dark and is an uncomfortable watch at times.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wacchen, from Old English wæ??an, from Proto-West Germanic *wakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *wakjan?.

Verb

watch (third-person singular simple present watches, present participle watching, simple past and past participle watched)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To look at, see, or view for a period of time.
2. (transitive) To observe over a period of time; to notice or pay attention.

3. (transitive) To mind, attend, or guard.
4. (transitive) To be wary or cautious of.

5. (transitive) To attend to dangers to or regarding.

6. (intransitive) To remain awake with a sick or dying person; to maintain a vigil.
7. (intransitive) To be vigilant or on one's guard.

8. (intransitive) To act as a lookout.
9. (nautical, of a buoy) To serve the purpose of a watchman by floating properly in its place.
10. (obsolete, intransitive) To be awake.
    • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book X:

      So on the morne Sir Trystram, Sir Gareth and Sir Dynadan arose early and went unto Sir Palomydes chambir, and there they founde hym faste aslepe, for he had all nyght wacched […]

11. (transitive, obsolete) To be on the lookout for; to wait for expectantly.
    • 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt 2008, p. 80:

      [S]he had reason to dread that her husband had formed a very criminal project of being revenged on Zeluco, and watched an opportunity of putting it in execution.

Usage notes

• When used transitively to mean look at something, there is an implication that the direct object is something which is capable of changing.

Antonyms

• ignore

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• wait
• wake

English

Etymology

From Middle English si?ht, si?t, siht, from Old English siht, sihþ (“something seen; vision”), from Proto-West Germanic *sihti, equivalent to see +? -th. Cognate with Scots sicht, Saterland Frisian Sicht, West Frisian sicht, Dutch zicht, German Low German Sicht, German Sicht, Danish sigte, Swedish sikte.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?t
• enPR: s?t, IPA^(key): /sa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: cite, site

Noun

sight (countable and uncountable, plural sights)

1. (in the singular) The ability to see.
2. The act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view.

   • And when hee had spoken these things, while they beheld, hee was taken vp, and a cloud receiued him out of their sight.

3. Something seen.
   • 2005, Lesley Brown (translator), Plato (author), Sophist, 236d:

     He's a really remarkable man and it's very hard to get him in one's sights; […]

4. Something worth seeing; a spectacle, either good or bad.

   • And Moses saide, I will nowe turne aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, Prothalamion

     They never saw a sight so fair.

5. A device used in aiming a projectile, through which the person aiming looks at the intended target.
6. A small aperture through which objects are to be seen, and by which their direction is settled or ascertained.
7. (now colloquial) a great deal, a lot; frequently used to intensify a comparative.

   • A nombre of twenty sterres bright,
     Which is to sene a wonder sight

   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 2

     "If your mother put you in the pit at twelve, it's no reason why I should do the same with my lad."

     "Twelve! It wor a sight afore that!"

8. In a drawing, picture, etc., that part of the surface, as of paper or canvas, which is within the frame or the border or margin. In a frame, the open space, the opening.
9. (obsolete) The instrument of seeing; the eye.
10. Mental view; opinion; judgment.
    • That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Synonyms

• (ability to see): sense of sight, vision
• (something seen): view
• (aiming device): scope, peep sight

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

sight (third-person singular simple present sights, present participle sighting, simple past and past participle sighted)

1. (transitive) To register visually.
2. (transitive) To get sight of (something).

3. (transitive) To apply sights to; to adjust the sights of; also, to give the proper elevation and direction to by means of a sight.

4. (transitive) To take aim at.

Synonyms

• (visually register): see
• (get sight of): espy, glimpse, spot
• (take aim): aim at, take aim at

Derived terms

• resight

Translations

See also

• see
• vision

Anagrams

• ghits, thigs, tighs