"set one's watch by someone" meaning in All languages combined

See set one's watch by someone on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: sets one's watch by someone [present, singular, third-person], setting one's watch by someone [participle, present], set one's watch by someone [participle, past], set one's watch by someone [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|set<,,set> one's watch by someone}} set one's watch by someone (third-person singular simple present sets one's watch by someone, present participle setting one's watch by someone, simple past and past participle set one's watch by someone)
  1. (idiomatic) To know the current time by observing a very punctual and reliable person going about their regular routine. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: like clockwork
    Sense id: en-set_one's_watch_by_someone-en-verb-yZQFdg7o Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sets one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "setting one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "set<,,set> one's watch by someone"
      },
      "expansion": "set one's watch by someone (third-person singular simple present sets one's watch by someone, present participle setting one's watch by someone, simple past and past participle set one's watch by someone)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To know the current time by observing a very punctual and reliable person going about their regular routine."
      ],
      "id": "en-set_one's_watch_by_someone-en-verb-yZQFdg7o",
      "links": [
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "punctual",
          "punctual"
        ],
        [
          "reliable",
          "reliable"
        ],
        [
          "regular",
          "regular"
        ],
        [
          "routine",
          "routine"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To know the current time by observing a very punctual and reliable person going about their regular routine."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "like clockwork"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "set one's watch by someone"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sets one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "setting one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "set one's watch by someone",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "set<,,set> one's watch by someone"
      },
      "expansion": "set one's watch by someone (third-person singular simple present sets one's watch by someone, present participle setting one's watch by someone, simple past and past participle set one's watch by someone)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "like clockwork"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To know the current time by observing a very punctual and reliable person going about their regular routine."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "punctual",
          "punctual"
        ],
        [
          "reliable",
          "reliable"
        ],
        [
          "regular",
          "regular"
        ],
        [
          "routine",
          "routine"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To know the current time by observing a very punctual and reliable person going about their regular routine."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "set one's watch by someone"
}

Download raw JSONL data for set one's watch by someone meaning in All languages combined (1.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-05 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (5ee713e and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.