dogwatch

See also: dog watch

English

dog +‎ watch

dogwatch (plural dogwatches)

(nautical) Aboard a ship, either of the two short two-hour watches that take place between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 12,
  […] in the last dog-watch when the drawing near of twilight induced revery […]
(by extension) A night shift, or other very late or early period of duty.
- 1946, Mezz Mezzrow & Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, Payback Press 1999, p. 22:
  The girls we knew were all on the dogwatch, from four to twelve in the morning.

nautical: short watch