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/wˈɑtʃwˌərd/ Listen

noun

Watchword n.

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.

A sentiment or motto; esp., one used as a rallying cry or a signal for action. "Nor deal in watchwords overmuch."

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Etymology of 'Watchword'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Watchword" Quotes from Famous Books

... fears, heedless of all warnings, and pressing right on to accomplish his purpose. His motto is Excelsior, 'higher.' He passes through the Alpine village,—through the rough, cold paths of the world—where the peasants cannot understand him, and where his watchword is 'an unknown tongue.' He disregards the happiness of domestic peace, and sees the glaciers—his fate—before him. He disregards the warnings of the old man's wisdom.... He answers to all, 'Higher yet'! The monks of St. Bernard are ...

— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... intention of proceeding on a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Varese. Starting from Pavia with a body guard of Germans, he passed near Milan, where his uncle and cousins came forth to meet him. Gian Galeazzo feigned a courteous greeting; but when he saw his relatives within his grasp, he gave a watchword in German to his troops, who surrounded Bernabo and took him prisoner with his sons. Gian Galeazzo marched immediately into Milan, poisoned his uncle in a dungeon, and proclaimed himself sole lord of the ...

— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds

... that to-day he is one of the most popular men in public life throughout the country; that 'What does Langdon think?' has become the watchword of the big body of independents who want honesty and ...

— A Gentleman from Mississippi • Thomas A. Wise

... Brill, and trod every foot of the earthworks to demonstrate how the hill had been fortified. He had commanded in the defence against Hampden and his greencoats—that regiment of foot raised in his pastoral shire, whose standard bore on one side the watchword of the Parliament, "God with us," and on the other Hampden's own device, "Vestigia ...

— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... the father of Count Stephen Tisza, took office, these wise counsels were finally and definitely rejected in favor of what Baron Banffy afterward defined as "national Chauvinism." Magyarization became the watchword of the State and persecution its means of action. Koloman Tisza concluded with the monarch a tacit pact under which the Magyar Government was to be left free to deal as it pleased with the non-Magyars as long as it supplied without wincing the recruits and ...

— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

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