babysit

verb babysits · babysitting · babysat · babysitted

1. ambitransitive 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.
2. informal, transitive To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a precaution should an emergency happen. The reaction takes several hours, so we leave a graduate student to babysit it.
3. informal, transitive To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed; to have to help or coax too much. He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done.