ward
see also: Ward
Pronunciation Noun

ward (plural wards)

  1. (archaic or obsolete) A warden; a guard; a guardian or watchman.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.xi:
      no gate they found, them to withhold, / Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late [...].
Noun

ward

  1. Protection, defence.
    1. (obsolete) A guard or watchman; now replaced by warden.
      • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:
        there is remuneration for the best ward of mine
      • The assieged castle's ward / Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain.
      • For want of other ward, / He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
    2. The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.).
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:
        Before the dore sat selfe-consuming Care, / Day and night keeping wary watch and ward, / For feare least Force or Fraud should vnaware / Breake in […]
    3. Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
      • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V:
        So forth the presoners were brought before Arthure, and he commaunded hem into kepyng of the conestabyls warde, surely to be kepte as noble presoners.
      • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:
        I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward.
      • It is also inconvenient, in Ireland, that the wards and marriages of gentlemen's children should be in the disposal of any of those lords.
    4. An enchantment or spell placed over a designated area or social unit, that prevents any tresspasser from entering; approaching; or even being able to locate said protected premises/demographic.
    5. (historical, Scots law) Land tenure through military service.
    6. (fencing) A guarding or defensive motion or position.
      • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene iv]:
        Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point.
  2. A protected place, and by extension, a type of subdivision.
    1. An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
      • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate 2006, page 149:
        Diocletian […] must certainly have derived some consolation from the grandeur of Aspalaton, the great arcaded wall it turned to the Adriatic, its four separate wards, each town size, and its seventeen watch-towers […].
      • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p. 78:
        With the castle so crowded, the outer ward had been given over to guests to raise their tents and pavilions, leaving only the smaller inner yards for training.
    2. A section or subdivision of a prison.
    3. An administrative division of a borough, city or council.
      On our last visit to Tokyo, we went to Chiyoda ward and visited the Emperor's palace.
      • Throughout the trembling city placed a guard, / Dealing an equal share to every ward.
    4. (UK) A division of a forest.
    5. (Mormonism) A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.
    6. A part of a hospital, with beds, where patients reside.
  3. A person under guardianship.
    1. A minor looked after by a guardian.
      After the trial, little Robert was declared a ward of the state.
    2. (obsolete) An underage orphan.
  4. An object used for guarding.
    1. The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.
      • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
        , II.1:
        A man must thorowly sound himselfe, and dive into his heart, and there see by what wards or springs the motions stirre.
      • The lock is made […] more secure by attaching wards to the front, as well as to the back, plate of the lock, in which case the key must be furnished with corresponding notches.
      • 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Resident Patient’, Norton 2005, page 628:
        With the help of a wire, however, they forced round the key. Even without the lens you will perceive, by the scratches on this ward, where the pressure was applied.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

ward (wards, present participle warding; past and past participle warded)

  1. (transitive) To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.
    • Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight / To ward the same.
  2. (transitive) To defend, to protect.
    • c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene i]:
      Tell him it was a hand that warded him / From a thousand dangers.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.3:
      they went to seeke their owne death, and rushed amidst the thickest of their enemies, with an intention, rather to strike, than to ward themselves.
  3. (transitive) To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.
    • Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.
    • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses
      The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
    • It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.
  4. (intransitive) To be vigilant; to keep guard.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:
      They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward, / And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant [...].
  5. (intransitive) To act on the defensive with a weapon.
Synonyms Translations
  • Portuguese: guardar
  • Russian: охраня́ть
Translations Translations Translations
  • Russian: быть начеку

Ward
Proper noun
  1. Surname for a guard or watchman.
  2. An English given name
  3. A corruption of the name Edward



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