Watch vs Gape - What's the difference?
watch | gape |
A portable or wearable timepiece.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.
The act of guarding and observing someone or something.
* Milton
* Addison
A particular time period when guarding is kept.
* Shakespeare
* Milton
A person or group of people who guard.
* Bible, Matthew xxvii. 65
The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.
* Shakespeare
(nautical) A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch'', ''port watch .
(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).
The act of seeing, or viewing, for a period of time.
* 2004 , Charles P. Nemeth, Criminal law
(label) To look at, see, or view for a period of time.
* , chapter=10
, title= (label) To observe over a period of time; to notice or pay attention.
(label) To mind, attend, or guard.
*{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
, title=, chapter=1
, passage=[…] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. They watch it all th' time b'cause they know blame well there ain't hardly room fer their feet fer th' pikers an' tin-horns an' thimble-riggers what are layin' fer 'em. […]”}}
(label) To be wary or cautious of.
(label) To attend to dangers to or regarding.
(label) To remain awake with a sick or dying person; to maintain a vigil.
(label) To be vigilant or on one's guard.
(label) To act as a lookout.
To serve the purpose of a watchman by floating properly in its place.
To be awake.
* 1485 , (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book X:
To open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.
* 1723 , , The Journal of a Modern Lady'', 1810, Samuel Johnson, ''The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper , Volume 11,
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=9 To stare in wonder.
To open wide; to display a gap.
* '', Act 1, Scene 1, 1807, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (editors),''The plays of William Shakspeare , Volume X,
* 1662 , , Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 74:
* , Cato Major, Of Old Age: A Poem , 1710,
(uncommon) An act of gaping; a yawn.
A large opening.
(uncountable) A disease in poultry caused by gapeworm in the windpipe, a symptom of which is frequent gaping.
The width of an opening.
(zoology) The maximum opening of the mouth (of a bird, fish, etc.) when it is open.
In intransitive terms the difference between watch and gape
is that watch is to act as a lookout while gape is to open wide; to display a gap.As nouns the difference between watch and gape
is that watch is a portable or wearable timepiece while gape is an act of gaping; a yawn.As verbs the difference between watch and gape
is that watch is to look at, see, or view for a period of time while gape is to open the mouth wide, especially involuntarily, as in a yawn, anger, or surprise.watch
English
(wikipedia watch)Etymology 1
As a noun, from (etyl) wacche, from (etyl) . See below for verb form.Noun
(es)- More people today carry a watch on their wrists than in their pockets.
- shepherds keeping watch by night
- All the long night their mournful watch they keep.
- The second watch of the night began at midnight.
- I did stand my watch upon the hill.
- Might we but hear / Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock / Count the night watches to his feathery dames.
- The watch stopped the travelers at the city gates.
- Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch ; go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
- He upbraids Iago, that he made him / Brave me upon the watch .
- A quick watch of Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange sends this reality home fast. Amoral, vacuous, cold-blooded, unsympathetic, and chillingly evil describe only parts of the story.
Derived terms
* hurricane watch * on one's watch * on the watch * pocket watch * stand watch * stopwatch * tornado watch * wristwatchEtymology 2
As a verb, from (etyl) wacchen, from (etyl) .Verb
(es)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}
- 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 [...].
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
* ignoreDerived terms
* clock-watcher * watch it * watch like a hawk * watch the pennies * watch this space * watchman * watchtowerSee also
* wait * wake 1000 English basic wordsgape
English
Verb
(gap)page 467,
- She stretches, gapes , unglues her eyes, / And asks if it be time to rise;
citation, passage=Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.}}
page 291,
- May that ground gape , and swallow me alive, / Where I shall kneel to him who slew my father!
- "Nor is he deterr'd from the belief of the perpetual flying of the Manucodiata, by the gaping of the feathers of her wings, (which seem thereby less fit to sustain her body) but further makes the narration probable by what he has observed in Kites hovering in the Aire, as he saith, for a whole hour together without any flapping of their wings or changing place."
page 25,
- The hungry grave for her due tribute gapes :
Noun
- (Addison)