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OBSERVANT
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Paying close attention especially to details
Classified under:
Similar:
attentive ((often followed by 'to') giving care or attention)
Derivation:
observance (the act of noticing or paying attention)
observe (observe with care or pay close attention to)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(of individuals) adhering strictly to laws and rules and customs
Example:
observant of the speed limit
Synonyms:
law-abiding; observant
Classified under:
Similar:
lawful (conformable to or allowed by law)
Derivation:
observance (conformity with law or custom or practice etc.)
observe (behave as expected during of holidays or rites)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Quick to notice; showing quick and keen perception
Synonyms:
observant; observing
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
perceptive (having the ability to perceive or understand; keen in discernment)
Derivation:
observe (discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of)
Context examples:
Mr. Weston, however, too eager to be very observant, too communicative to want others to talk, was very well satisfied with what she did say, and soon moved away to make the rest of his friends happy by a partial communication of what the whole room must have overheard already.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Again and even nearer came the rallying Spaniards, and again with cry of fear and stooping bodies they swerved off to right and left, but the English still stood stolid and observant among their rocks.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The stone was just broad enough to accommodate, comfortably, another girl and me, at that time my chosen comrade—one Mary Ann Wilson; a shrewd, observant personage, whose society I took pleasure in, partly because she was witty and original, and partly because she had a manner which set me at my ease.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Some of the more observant of the crowd had glanced suspiciously at this advancing figure, but the majority had not observed him at all until he reined up his horse upon a knoll which overlooked the amphitheatre, and in a stentorian voice announced that he represented the Custos rotulorum of His Majesty’s county of Sussex, that he proclaimed this assembly to be gathered together for an illegal purpose, and that he was commissioned to disperse it by force, if necessary.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As I looked at her beautiful face, observant of her work, she raised her mild clear eyes, and saw that I was looking at her.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But, dear me! what an observant young lady we have come upon.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The lady lay back exhausted upon a couch, but her quick, observant gaze, as we entered the room, and the alert expression of her beautiful features, showed that neither her wits nor her courage had been shaken by her terrible experience.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She would not be frightened from paying him those attentions which, as a friend and almost a relation, were his due, by the observant eyes of Lucy, though she soon perceived them to be narrowly watching her.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
There were other run-ways and alleys where rabbits were hanging in the air, and the wolf-pair prospected them all, the she-wolf leading the way, old One Eye following and observant, learning the method of robbing snares—a knowledge destined to stand him in good stead in the days to come.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Be observant of him.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
