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deathwatch definition

death·watch (det̸h′wäc̸h′)

noun

  1. a vigil kept beside a dead or dying person
  2. a guard set over a person soon to be executed
  3. any of various insects, esp. any of a family (Anobiidae) of wood-burrowing beetles whose heads make a tapping sound superstitiously regarded as an omen of death

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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