| 释义 |
ˈwatch-house
[watch n.]
1. A house in which a watch or guard is stationed.
1482Cely Papers (Camden) 111 [You] woll hawe yowre wull howssyd in yowre wull howsse be the est wache howsse. 1530Palsgr. 287/1 Watche howse, lieu de guayet. 1599Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 108 Vpon the walles euery night doe watch fifteene men in watch houses, for euery watch house fiue men. 1629Aldeburgh Rec. in N. & Q. 12th Ser. VIII. 426/1 To John Cooke in p[aymen]t for a wache house set up at the beacon..01 00 00. 1739C. Labelye Short Acc. Piers Westm. Bridge 70 Useful Buildings, such as..Watch-houses, &c. 1775Romans Hist. Florida App. 72 You will see..a watch-house (nick-named a fort) on St. Rosa Island. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) iii. 72 Four of these [summits]..stand like watch-houses on the edge of the cliffs. 1880A. McKay Hist. Kilmarnock (ed. 4) 17 One of these loop⁓holed recesses [in Dean Castle] had been perhaps used as a watch-house in times of emergency. 1881E. Ingersoll Oyster-Industry 249 Watch-house, a shanty built on the shore, or near the planted oyster-beds, from which they may be guarded (Massachusetts).
2. A house used as a station for municipal night-watchmen, in which the chief constable of the night sits to receive and detain in custody till the morning any disorderly persons brought in by the watchmen. (Latterly only in use outside the U.K.)
1716Gay Trivia ii. 491 Where statues breath'd, the works of Phidias' hands, A wooden pump, or lonely watch-house stands. 1731–2Norwich Mercury 11– 18 Mar. 1/2 Several of the Footmen and Chairmen were carried to St. James's Watch-house, and Yesterday Morning were examined before Justice Lambert. 1774Ann. Reg. 123 The mob pulled down the watch-house, and rescued the prisoners. 1835Act 5 & 6 Will. IV, c. 76 §78 To deliver any Person so apprehended into the Custody of the Constable..at the nearest Watch-house. 1842Dickens Amer. Notes vi, Here are The Tombs once more. The city watch-house is a part of the building. 1845D. Jerrold St. Giles i, The watchmen bore the mother to the watch-house. 1876Emerson Lett. & Social Aims i. 40 This unwritten play in fifty acts, composed by the dullest snorer on the floor of the watch-house. 1919Melbourne Argus 1 Sept. 6 Detectives..arrested George Whitney..and locked him up at the City Watchhouse.
attrib.1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4890/3 The Unicorn over-against the Watch-house Door. 1859K. Cornwallis Panorama New World I. 87 Inside there were several detectives and two watchhouse keepers at the books. |