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3 definitions found

From: DICT.TW English-Chinese Dictionary 英漢字典

 death·watch /ˈdɛθˌwɑʧ/
 臨終的看護,死囚的監守人

From: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

 Death·watch n.
 1. Zool. (a) A small beetle (Anobium tessellatum and other allied species). By forcibly striking its head against woodwork it makes a ticking sound, which is a call of the sexes to each other, but has been imagined by superstitious people to presage death. (b) A small wingless insect, of the family Psocidæ, which makes a similar but fainter sound; -- called also deathtick.
    She is always seeing apparitions and hearing deathwatches.   --Addison.
    I did not hear the dog howl, mother, or the deathwatch beat.   --Tennyson.
 2. The guard set over a criminal before his execution.
 

From: WordNet (r) 2.0

 deathwatch
      n 1: minute wingless psocopterous insects injurious to books and
           papers [syn: booklouse, book louse, Liposcelis
           divinatorius]
      2: bores through wood making a ticking sound popularly thought
         to presage death [syn: deathwatch beetle, Xestobium
         rufovillosum]