babysit

Etymology

Back-formation from babysitter.

verb

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.
    My daughter is babysitting for the Morgans at number ten, who are going out on a date night.
    We need someone to babysit our children while we go to the theater.
    Bart eventually gets Laura to babysit while Homer and Marge eat at the Sea Captain’s all-you-can-eat seafood joint, The Frying Dutchman. May 27, 2012, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club
  2. (transitive, informal) To watch or attend anything or anyone unnecessarily closely; to have to help or coax too much.
    He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done.
    It was observed by the FBI personnel assigned to “babysit” agent Tricycle that his egregiously excessive spending was causing unwanted attention […] 2016, Christopher Vasey, Nazi Intelligence Operations in Non-Occupied Territories, page 175

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