What does "babysit" mean?

To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money.

What is a synonym for "babysit"?

Common synonyms include: baby sit, baby-sit, childmind, childmind, childsit, coddle.

//ˈbeɪ.bi.sɪt// verb, slang

verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Verb

1
To watch or tend someone else's child for a period of time, often for money. ambitransitive
"My daughter is babysitting for the Morgans at number ten, who are going out on a date night."
2
work or act as a baby-sitter wordnet
3
To watch or tend a thing or process without normally intervening in it, e.g. as a precaution should an emergency happen. informal, transitive
"The reaction takes several hours, so we leave a graduate student to babysit it."
4
take watchful responsibility for wordnet
5
To watch or attend anything or anyone more closely than ought to be needed; to have to help or coax too much. informal, transitive
"He left me to babysit the new guy while he got some work done."

"I am supposed to babysit the children tonight."

Back-formation from babysitter.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.