nightwatchmann.
/ˌnʌɪtˈwɒtʃmən/, U.S. /ˌnaɪtˈwɑtʃm(ə)n/ 1. A person employed to keep watch at night; (now) spec. a person employed to guard an empty workplace overnight.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > watching or keeping guard > [noun] > one who watches or keeps guard > one who watches or guards at night
night watcha1400
night-watcher1569
Jack-o'-lantern1663
nightwatchman1767
vigilante1899
hack1914
watch-night1953
1767 Lloyd's Evening Post 8 June 543/2 As the Constables of Castle Precincts were in search of some stockings that were stolen a few nights before,..their suspicion led them to the house of John Langford, Night Watchman, in the Quakers Friars.
1836 J. Backhouse Extracts from Lett. (1838) iii. 73 The different flocks are counted into the folds at night and committed to the charge of a night-watchman.
1863 A. D. T. Whitney Faith Gartney's Girlhood xxviii. 261 Michael Garvin, the night-watchman,..had left.
1926 J. Masefield Odtaa xiii. 214 There must be at least a caretaker or night-watchman.
1949 H. Wilcox Six Moons in Sulawesi i. 22 He was, said Salu, the ronda, our night watchman, hewer of wood and drawer of water.
1981 D. Potter Pennies from Heaven xxiii. 143 Nightwatchmen do not always soliloquize because they are bored.
2. Cricket. A lower-order batter sent in to bat when a wicket falls shortly before the close of a day's play.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > cricket > cricketer > [noun] > batsman > last in day
nightwatchman1948
1948 Daily Tel. 23 July 3/1 Bedser was the natural choice as ‘night watchman’.
1971 Sunday Times 2 May 24 The fifth [ball] was caught by Turner off the nightwatchman Wasim Bari's glove and shoulder.
1990 Cricket Life Internat. June 12/3 Small, coming in as nightwatchman, didn't have to face a ball as the batsmen were promptly offered the light and..went off.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1767