Definition: | 1) guard, watch
1a) a watching, keeping watch
1a1) to keep watch
1b) persons keeping watch, a guard, sentinels
1c) of the place where captives are kept, a prison
1d) of the time (of night) during which guard was kept, a watch
i.e. a period of time during which part of the guard was on
duty, and at the end of which others relieved them. As the
earlier Greeks divided the night commonly into three parts,
so, previous to the exile, the Israelites also had three
watches in a night; subsequently, however, after they became
subject to the Romans, they adopted the Roman custom of
dividing the night into four watches
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