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Ward   /wɔrd/   Listen
noun
Ward  n.  
1.
The act of guarding; watch; guard; guardianship; specifically, a guarding during the day. See the Note under Watch, n., 1. "Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward."
2.
One who, or that which, guards; garrison; defender; protector; means of guarding; defense; protection. "For the best ward of mine honor." "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."
3.
The state of being under guard or guardianship; confinement under guard; the condition of a child under a guardian; custody. "And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard." "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.
A guarding or defensive motion or position, as in fencing; guard. "Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point."
5.
One who, or that which, is guarded. Specifically:
(a)
A minor or person under the care of a guardian; as, a ward in chancery. "You know our father's ward, the fair Monimia."
(b)
A division of a county. (Eng. & Scot.)
(c)
A division, district, or quarter of a town or city. "Throughout the trembling city placed a guard, Dealing an equal share to every ward."
(d)
A division of a forest. (Eng.)
(e)
A division of a hospital; as, a fever ward.
6.
(a)
A projecting ridge of metal in the interior of a lock, to prevent the use of any key which has not a corresponding notch for passing it.
(b)
A notch or slit in a key corresponding to a ridge in the lock which it fits; a ward notch. "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."
Ward penny (O. Eng. Law), money paid to the sheriff or castellan for watching and warding a castle.
Ward staff, a constable's or watchman's staff. (Obs.)


verb
Ward  v. t.  (past & past part. warded; pres. part. warding)  
1.
To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a specific sense, to guard during the day time. "Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight To ward the same."
2.
To defend; to protect. "Tell him it was a hand that warded him From thousand dangers."
3.
To defend by walls, fortifications, etc. (Obs.)
4.
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." "The pointed javelin warded off his rage." "It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections."


Ward  v. i.  
1.
To be vigilant; to keep guard.
2.
To act on the defensive with a weapon. "She redoubling her blows drove the stranger to no other shift than to ward and go back."


suffix
-wards, -ward  suff.  Suffixes denoting course or direction to; motion or tendency toward; as in backward, or backwards; toward, or towards, etc.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Ward" Quotes from Famous Books



... the condition of the prisoners was frightful. The swearing of the common felons was mixed with the prayers of the Huguenots. The guards walked about all night to keep watch and ward over them. They fell upon any who assembled and knelt together, separating them and swearing at them, and mercilessly ill-treating them, men and women alike. "But all their strictness and rage," says De Pechels, "could ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles
... Destiny had found pleasant domicile in the ancient clothing of Old Bill, and was using their unique wearer as a protective agent to ward off evil from both Mortimer and the girl. As they jogged toward the starting post Allis allowed Lauzanne to lag; she wished to avoid Redpath. But the Indian was a horse of uncertain temperament, and presently, with a foolish side rush, he cannoned ...
— Thoroughbreds • W. A. Fraser
... with gold lace. On alternate days, at the prison where I was confined, he came on duty at 5 a.m. in Summer and 5.30 in Winter, and left the prison at 4 p.m., leaving in charge a principal warder, coming on duty the following morning at 7 a.m. At 6 o'clock p.m., after receiving the reports from the ward officers, stating the number of prisoners each has just locked up, and thus seeing that all are safe, he locks with his master key the gates and outer doors of the main buildings, and before finally retiring for the night ...
— Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison - Fifteen Years in Solitude • Austin Biron Bidwell
... aggrieve the subjects of our said Lord the King, who should make purchases of and in said Funds, &c. on the 19th February, in Fifty-fourth year of the Reign of our said Lord the King, at the parish of St. Bartholomew, by the Exchange, in the Ward of Broad-street, in London aforesaid, unlawfully, &c. did conspire, &c. to make and propagate, and to cause, &c. to be made and propagated, a false report and rumour, that the French had been then lately beaten in battle, and ...
— The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane, • William Brodie Gurney
... conventions to defy: that only a girl may possess a trousseau, and that a marriage is a necessary condition to the acquiring of it. Fortunately I am strong-minded. A long course of Mrs. HUMPHRY WARD'S homilies has given me no little facility in achieving this attribute, and I am determined that I will change neither my sex ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 22, 1914 • Various


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