vigilant

vig·i·lant

adj \ˈvi-jə-lənt\

Definition of VIGILANT

: alertly watchful especially to avoid danger

— vig·i·lant·ly adverb

Examples of VIGILANT

1. When traveling through the city, tourists should be extra vigilant.
2. They were vigilant about protecting their children.
3. We remain vigilant against theft.
4. Over the years, as tension between pitchers and hit batsmen heightened to the point that hitters began rushing the mound, umpires have had to become far more vigilant about keeping the game from degenerating into a dogfight. —Buzz Bissinger, Sports Illustrated, 21 Mar. 2005
5. At the Château de Wideville's magnificent seventeenth-century gates, guests have their names ticked off by vigilant staff and then snake through a lugubrious park à l'anglaise. —Hamish Bowles, Vogue, September 2002
6. And as a foreign tourist in North Korea, under the care of vigilant minders who wanted me to see only the best, I had enjoyed the finest fare available. —Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair, January 2001
7. A vigilant hand had, as usual, kept the fire alive and the lamp trimmed; and the room, with its rows and rows of books, its bronze and steel statuettes of “The Fencers” on the mantelpiece and its many photographs of famous pictures, looked singularly home-like and welcoming. —Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, 1920

Origin of VIGILANT

Middle English (Scots), from Latin vigilant-, vigilans, from present participle of vigilare to keep watch, stay awake, from vigil awake

First Known Use: 15th century

Related to VIGILANT

Synonyms: Argus-eyed, attentive, awake, observant, open-eyed, tenty (also tentie) [Scottish], alert, watchful, wide-awake

Antonyms: asleep

Related Words: alive, aware, conscious, sensitive; cognizant, heedful, keen, mindful, observing, regardful, sharp, sharp-eyed; hyperalert, hypervigilant, sleepless, wakeful; careful, cautious, chary, wary; prepared, ready

Near Antonyms: absent, absentminded, absorbed, abstracted, daydreaming, dazed, distracted, dreaming, dreamy, engrossed, faraway, insensible, oblivious, preoccupied; sleeping, unaware, unconscious, unknowing, unwitting; careless, heedless, inattentive, unheeding, unmindful, unthinking, unwary; unprepared, unready

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See Synonym Discussion at watchful