verb (not used in the progressive tenses) (formal)
1 to see or notice sb/sth:
[VN] Have you observed any changes lately? * All the characters in the novel are closely observed (= seem like people in real life). * I want you to observe all the details. * [VNinf] The police observed a man enter the bank. * [VN-ing] They observed him entering the bank. * [Vthat] She observed that all the chairs were already occupied. * [VNtoinf] He was observed to follow her closely.
HELPNOTE This pattern is only used in the passive.
2 to watch sb/sth carefully, especially to learn more about them:
[VN] I felt he was observing everything I did. * The patients were observed over a period of several months. * [Vwh-] They observed how the parts of the machine fitted together. * [V] He observes keenly, but says little.
3 (formal) to make a remark:
[Vthat] She observed that it was getting late. [also Vspeech]
4 [VN] to obey rules, laws, etc:
Will the rebels observe the ceasefire?
5 [VN] (formal) to celebrate festivals, birthdays, etc:
Do they observe Christmas?
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for observe is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does observe appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — observe appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
