Definition of "deathwatch" [death•watch]

• A vigil kept beside a dying or dead person. (noun)
• One who guards a condemned person before execution. (noun)
• A deathwatch beetle. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I am writing these lines in the death cell, and the deathwatch is set on me."
• "But his deathwatch is down to 5, 4, 3, 2 ... so don't know if CBS, Mike or Molly should really be banking on that."
• "Visible rust and hidden corrosion, flow constricted, backing up in eddies and the furnace ticking over in the basement - sound they used to call the deathwatch beetle."