eyewitness

• eye-witness
• eye witness

eye +‎ witness

eyewitness (plural eyewitnesses)

1. Someone who sees an event and can report or testify about it. [from 16th c.]
   • 1915, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan:

     And the girl's fate he could picture as plainly as though he were an eyewitness to it.

   • 1960 September, “Talking of Trains: Accident at Holmes Chapel”, in Trains Illustrated, page 522:

     The evidence of eyewitnesses and the distance travelled after the initial derailment confirmed that the train was travelling at 45 to 50 m.p.h. as it became derailed.

eyewitness (third-person singular simple present eyewitnesses, present participle eyewitnessing, simple past and past participle eyewitnessed)

1. To be present at an event, and see it