He felt untrammelled and unwatched over, recalling with a shudder the old strands that had tethered him.
To move, speak and breathe,—go out and come in unwatched, and free from danger!
The other three sides of the guardhouse appeared to be unwatched.
To be unwatched, to be free, to be little and young, if that pleased one!
Adone, with an instinct of compassion and delicacy, left her unwatched and went within.
Do not think you have been unwatched during the years you have been absent from us.
I wonder sometimes if anybody in the world experiences keener joys than unwatched common people.
If he could help it he wouldn't leave me for an hour unwatched; nor would he let me lift a hand.
To shift the metaphor slightly, the Empire could afford to leave no unwatched pots around to boil over unexpectedly.
For if we do this, we leave the unwatched squadrons free for sporadic action.
Old English wæccan "keep watch, be awake," from Proto-Germanic *wakojan; essentially the same word as Old English wacian "be or remain awake" (see wake (v.)); perhaps a Northumbrian form. Meaning "be vigilant" is from c.1200. That of "to guard (someone or some place), stand guard" is late 14c. Sense of "to observe, keep under observance" is mid-15c. Related: Watched; watching.
Old English wæcce "a watching," from wæccan (see watch (v.)). Sense of "sentinel" is recorded from c.1300; that of "person or group officially patroling a town (especially at night) to keep order, etc." is first recorded 1530s. Meaning "period of time in which a division of a ship's crew remains on deck" is from 1580s. Sense of "period into which a night was divided in ancient times" translates Latin vigilia, Greek phylake, Hebrew ashmoreth.
The Hebrews divided the night into three watches, the Greeks usually into four (sometimes five), the Romans (followed by the Jews in New Testament times) into four. [OED]The meaning "small timepiece" is from 1580s, developing from that of "a clock to wake up sleepers" (mid-15c.).