babysit
See also: baby-sit
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Back-formation from babysitter.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
babysit (third-person singular simple present babysits, present participle babysitting, simple past and past participle babysat)
- (transitive, intransitive) To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.
- My daughter is babysitting for the Morgans at number ten, who are going out on a date night.
- We need someone to babysit our children while we go to the theater.
- 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club[1]:
- Bart eventually gets Laura to babysit while Homer and Marge eat at the Sea Captain’s all-you-can-eat seafood joint, The Frying Dutchman.
- (transitive, informal) To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a precaution should an emergency happen.
- The reaction takes several hours, so we leave a graduate student to babysit it.
- (transitive, informal) To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed; to have to help or coax too much.
- Synonym: (partial) coddle
- He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done.
- 2016, Christopher Vasey, Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories, page 175:
- It was observed by the FBI personnel assigned to “babysit” agent Tricycle that his egregiously excessive spending was causing unwanted attention […]
Related terms edit
Translations edit
to watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money
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to watch or attend anything or anyone unnecessarily closely
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Danish edit
Verb edit
babysit