night watchman:
(also ‘night watch’; plural: ‘night watchmen’; for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
a night watchman in the past doing his rounds
a watchman/guard who keeps watch/guard on a factory, office, or any building at night;
a batsman in a game of cricket who is sent to bat at the end of the day’s play just to play out the time but not actually to score (i.e. when the captain of the team batting does not want to lose another important wicket at the end of the day’s play, he/she sends out a not-so-important batsman, usually a bowler, to engage the bowlers until it is time to stop the game for the day — the idea behind sending a night watchman is that suppose this batsman is not out before the time, the ace batsman begins the game fresh the next day scoring well)
a night watchman on duty
My cousin is moonlighting as a night watchman at a block of flats/an apartment building.
Most of the night watchmen we see here are retired police officers or retired soldiers.
Unlike the night watchmen in the past who had to go about the place several times they were guarding, shining lights and checking the locks on the doors, the modern day watchmen sit in comfortable rooms from where they keep an eye on CC TV screens to see if there is anybody trespassing, and there are warning signals beeping periodically to keep them to be alert in case they doze off on duty!
