Noun

(en noun)

The act of one who watches.

* 1819 , John Edwards Caldwell, Christian Herald and Seaman's Magazine (volume 6, page 225)

What toils and pains; what cares and watchings ; how many reproofs, restraints, and corrections; how many prayers, and sighs, and tears, are employed and suffered, before this hard task can be accomplished?

Noun

(en noun)

The act of observing, and the fact of being observed.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,

* {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April, author=(Jeremy Bernstein)

, volume=100, issue=2, page=146, magazine=(American Scientist) , title= A Palette of Particles , passage=The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.}}

The act of noting and recording some event; or the record of such noting.

A remark or comment.

* Shakespeare

That's a foolish observation .

* Alexander Pope

To observations which ourselves we make / We grow more partial for the observer's sake.

A judgement based on observing.

Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance.

* Jeremy Taylor

We are to procure dispensation or leave to omit the observation of it in such circumstances.