keep watch

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keep watch (third-person singular simple present keeps watch, present participle keeping watch, simple past and past participle kept watch)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To guard; to watch over someone or something.

   Synonym: stand guard

   • 1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:

     In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.