watchet

See also: Watchet

English

Etymology

From Middle English wachet, waget; compare French vaciet (“whortleberry”), Latin vaccīnium (“blueberry”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: wăch'ət, IPA^(key): /ˈwæt͡ʃɪt/

Homophone: watch it

Noun

watchet (countable and uncountable, plural watchets)

1. (obsolete) A light blue color

   watchet:  

   • 1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter V, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, pages 175–176:

     I was going by his Highneſs's order to my Lady Iſabella's chamber: She lies in the watchet-coloured chamber, on the right-hand, one pair of ſtairs.

2. (obsolete) Cloth or clothes of this color.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     They him disarm'd, and spredding on the ground / Their watchet mantles frindgd with siluer round, / They softly wipt away the gelly blood […]

Adjective

watchet (comparative more watchet, superlative most watchet)

1. (obsolete) Of the color watchet.
   • 1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act V, scene ix, page 260:

     Firſt, the hethermoſt, in the changeable blew, and greene robe, is the commendably-faſhioned gallant, Evcosmos; […] The fourth, in watchet tinſell, is the kind, and truly benefique, Evcolos.

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “The Fifth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC, page 75:

     Shee, in a watchet weed, with manie a curious wave / Which as a princelie gift great Amphitrite gave

   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     Who stares, in Germany, at watchet eyes?