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Watchword   /wˈɑtʃwˌərd/   Listen
noun
Watchword  n.  
1.
A word given to sentinels, and to such as have occasion to visit the guards, used as a signal by which a friend is known from an enemy, or a person who has a right to pass the watch from one who has not; a countersign; a password.
2.
A sentiment or motto; esp., one used as a rallying cry or a signal for action. "Nor deal in watchwords overmuch."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Watchword" Quotes from Famous Books



... slaughtered before his eyes; while various obnoxious public functionaries were dragged to the At-meidan, and summarily hanged on the branches of a large plane-tree;[4] and for several weeks this proscription was continued, till the cry of "Take him to the plane-tree!" became a watchword of as well-known and fearful import, as that of "A la lanterne!" in later times. In this emergency, when the fabric of government seemed on the verge of dissolution, an ancient Anatolian pasha, Mohammed-Kiuprili, who had lately repaired ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. - June, 1843.,Vol. LIII. • Various

... people; and the idea is current that, at the appointed time, he will return, at the head of an immense army, and re-establish "La Nation Canadienne."] But there is great reason to doubt whether his name be not used as a mere watchword; whether the people are not in fact running entirely counter to his councils and policy; and whether they are not really under the guidance of separate petty agitators, who have no plan but that of a senseless and reckless determination to show in every way ...
— Diary in America, Series Two • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... all day. Embarking again in the evening, they rowed with muffled oars under the shadow of the eastern shore, and passed so close to the French fort that they heard the voices of the sentinels calling the watchword. In the morning they had left it five miles behind. Again they hid in the woods; and from their lurking-place saw bateaux passing, some northward, and some southward, along the ...
— Montcalm and Wolfe • Francis Parkman

... Spirit bare witness. 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Brethren, our Lord's maxim, expressed in these words, 'I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me,' should be the watchword with every one of us. And if the truth leads us through the waters of the Jordan, or into the fire of persecution, let us still deny ourselves, bear the cross, and say: 'Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness;' and we, in heart, in a conscience ...
— Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary - Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk • John Kline

... growing more scanty, an observation showed him they were actually twenty-eight miles further away from their destination than when they started! While they were toiling south, the ice-floe over which they were plodding was drifting more rapidly north. Nil desperandum must ever be the watchword of Arctic expeditions, and DeLong, saying nothing to the others of his discovery, changed slightly the course of his march and labored on. July 19 they reached an island hitherto unknown, which was thereupon ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot


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