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watchdog

Pronunciation: /ˈwɑːt͡ʃˌdɑːɡ/

The English word “watchdog” has 4 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A guard dog.
  2. An individual or group that monitors the activities of another entity (such as an individual, corporation, non-profit group, or governmental organization) on behalf of the public to ensure that entity does not behave illegally or unethically.

verb

  1. To perform a function analogous to that of a watchdog; to guard and warn.
  2. To be continuously reset by a watchdog timer.

Etymology

From watch + dog.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.