guetter

== French == === Etymology === Inherited from Old French gaitier, guaitier, from Frankish *wahtōn, *wahtjan (“to watch, guard”), derivative of *wahta (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Germanic *wahtwō (“guard, watch”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be fresh, cheerful, awake”). Compare English wait, ultimately from the same origin through an Anglo-Norman/Old Northern French variant. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ɡɛ.te/ ~ /ɡe.te/ Homophones: guettai, guetté, guettée, guettées, guettés, guettez, gaieté === Verb === guetter (transitive) to watch (intently), to watch for, to lie in wait Near-synonym: épier Le chat guette la souris. ― The cat lies in wait for the mouse. Des gendarmes le guettent. ― Gendarmes are lying in wait for him. (transitive, figurative) to await in order to seize guetter une occasion ― to wait for an opportunity (transitive, figurative) to menace, to loom (to appear in a threatening form) La mort le guette. ― Death hangs over him. ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Derived terms ==== guetteur ==== Related terms ==== guet-apens (“ambush”) guet ==== Descendants ==== Saint Dominican Creole French: gueté === Further reading === “guetter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 Littré, Émile (1873–1878), “guetter”, in Dictionnaire de la langue française, Paris: L. Hachette