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''ward'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250825004638-00-⌔

ward - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

ward (plural wards)

  • (archaic or obsolete) A warden; a guard; a guardian or watchman.
    • ✤ th’aſſieged Caſtles ward
      Their ſtedfaſt ſtonds did mightily maintaine      1
    • ✤ no gate they found, them to withhold,
      Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late […].      2
    • ✤ there is remuneration for the best ward of mine3
    • ✤ For want of other ward,
      He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.      4

Noun

ward (countable and uncountable, plural wards)

  • Protection, defence.
    • The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.)
      • ✤ 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 […]        5
    • Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
      • ✤ 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.6
      • ✤ I must attend his majesty’s command, to whom I am now in ward.7
      • ✤ 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.8
    • (fantasy) 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 or demographic.
    • (fencing) A guarding or defensive motion or position.
      • ✤ Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point.9
    • (historical, Scots law) Land tenure through military service.
  • A protected place, and by extension, a type of subdivision.
    • An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
      • ✤ 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 […].10
      • ✤ 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.11
    • A section or subdivision of a prison.
    • 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.
      • ✤ The sayde Iohn Mansell chargyd the mayre, that euery Alderman in hys warde shulde vppon the morowe folowyng assemble hys wardemote, [etc.].12
      • ✤ […] within v wardes of the same Towne which byn conteyned in seuerall partes in the same Towne ther hath byn v Cunstables that is to say in euery ward oon for the conseruacion of the kynges Peace and other good Rule […]13
      • ✤ There is also The Wardmote Enquest, Chosen euery St. Thomas day, in euery ward a quest.14
      • ✤ We meete at the Guildehall and there determine That thorow euery warde the watche be clad In armour.15
      • ✤ The Auncient diuision of this Cittie, was into Wardes or Aldermanries: and therefore I will beginne at the East, and so proceede thorough the high and most principall streete of the cittie to the west after this manner.16
      • ✤ They do you wrong to put you so oft vpon ’t [sc. the office of constable]. Are there not men in your Ward sufficient to serue it?17
      • ✤ London should have as many Artillery Gardens, as it hath Wards.18
      • ✤ Throughout the trembling city placed a guard,
        Dealing an equal share to every ward.        19
      • ✤ Rome…is divided into 14 Regions or Wards.20
      • ✤ In the Ward [It. regione] of the Temple of Peace, stood a Colossus.21
      • ✤ In ev’ry Street a City-bard Rules, like an Alderman his Ward.22
      • ✤ There are four wards here, in each of which are a constable, and two church-wardens.23
      • ✤ By an act of Parliament, in 1800, for regulating the police of Glasgow, that city was divided into wards.24
      • ✤ I would rather have had that slow, conscientious vote of P.’s alone, than to have been chosen Alderman of the Ward!25
      • ✤ Large boroughs are divided into wards, which elect their councillors severally.26
    • (UK) A division of a forest.
    • (Mormonism) A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.
    • A part of a hospital, with beds, where patients reside.
      • ✤ Since sick people were apt to be present, he could not always depend on a lively young crowd in the same ward with him, and the entertainment was not always good.27
      • ✤ Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers’ often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.28
  • A person under guardianship.
    • A minor looked after by a guardian.
      • ✤ After the trial, little Robert was declared a ward of the state.
      • ✤ Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.29
    • (obsolete) An underage orphan.
  • An object used for guarding.
    • The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.
      • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:, 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.30
      • ✤ 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.31

Verb

ward (third-person singular simple present wards, present participle warding, simple past and past participle warded)

  • (transitive) To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.
    • ✤ Whoſe gates he found faſt ſhut, ne liuing wight
      To ward the ſame, nor anſwere commers call      32
  • (transitive) To defend, to protect.
    • ✤ Tell him it was a hand that warded him
      From a thousand dangers.      33
    • ✤ 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.34
  • (transitive) To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches. (usually followed by off)
    • ✤ Synonym: ward off
    • ✤ Draw forth thy ſword, thou mightie man at armes,
      Intending but to raiſe my charmed ſkin:
      And Ioue himſelfe will ſtretch his hand from heauen,
      To ward the blow, and ſhield me ſafe from harme, […]      35
    • ✤ Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.36
    • ✤ The pointed javelin warded off his rage.37
    • ✤ It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.38
  • (intransitive) To be vigilant; to keep guard.
    • ✤ They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward,
      And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant […]      39
    • ✤ Having slapped into middle age, where thoughts of one’s general infallibility are tempered by the realisation that those creaky, achy complaints are signs of certain decrepitude, I have decided to ward against further gravitational decline by hauling my saggy, sorry self to the gym.40
  • (intransitive) To act on the defensive with a weapon.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /wɔːd/
  • (General American) IPA: /wɔɹd/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Homophone: warred
  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d

Etymology 1

From Middle English warde, from Old English weard (“keeper, watchman, guard, guardian, protector; lord, king; possessor”), from Proto-Germanic ﹡warduz (“guard, keeper”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡wer- (“to heed, defend”). Cognate with Dutch waard, German Wart.

Etymology 2

From Middle English ward, warde, from Old English weard (“watching, ward, protection, guardianship; advance post; waiting for, lurking, ambuscade”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡wardu, from Proto-Germanic ﹡wardō (“protection, attention, keeping”), an extension of the stem ﹡wara- (“attentive”) (English wary, beware), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡wer- (“to cover”).

Cognate with German Warte (“watchtower”), warten (“wait for”); English guard is a parallel form which came via Old French.

Etymology 3

From Middle English warden, from Old English weardian (“to watch, guard, keep, protect, preserve; hold, possess, occupy, inhabit; rule, govern”), from Proto-West Germanic ﹡wardēn, from Proto-Germanic ﹡wardōną, ﹡wardāną (“to guard”), from Proto-Indo-European ﹡wer- (“to heed, defend”). Doublet of guard.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 15: ↩

  2. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: ↩

  3. c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]: ↩

  4. 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC: ↩

  5. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: ↩

  6. 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Book V: ↩

  7. c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]: ↩

  8. 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b] y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC: ↩

  9. c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]: ↩

  10. 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 149: ↩

  11. 2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Sansa[Stark]”, in A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3), London: Voyager, →ISBN, page 63: ↩

  12. a. 1513, Fabyan, Chron., published 1533, § vii, page 28b: ↩

  13. 1518, “Abbot of Peterborough v. Power and others”, in Isaac Saunders Leadam, editor, Select Cases before the King’s Council in the Star Chamber, commonly called The Court of Star Chamber (Selden Society), volume II: A.D. 1509–1544, London: Bernard Quaritch, published 1911, page 127: ↩

  14. 1588, W. Smith, Brief Descr. Lond. (MS. Harl. 6363), leaf 13: ↩

  15. c. 1590, Anthony Munday, Henry Chettle, edited by Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, and William Shakespeare, Sir Thomas More, Act II, scene iv, line 226: ↩

  16. 1598–1603, John Stow, edited by Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, A Survey of London […]: Reprinted from the text of 1603, volume I, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, published 1908, page 117: ↩

  17. 1603, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act II, scene i, line 281: ↩

  18. 1631, Gouge, God’s Arrows, v. xix. 432: ↩

  19. 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Eighth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC: ↩

  20. a. 1700, Evelyn, Diary, 6 May 1645: ↩

  21. 1715, Leoni, Palladio’s Archit., volume II, published 1742, page 72: ↩

  22. 1733, Swift, On Poetry, page 286: ↩

  23. 1751, “St. Albans”, in Engl. Gazetteer, volume I: ↩

  24. 1824, G. Chalmers, Caledonia, volume III, chapter vi, page 569: ↩

  25. 1854, Lowell, Camb. 30 Yrs. Ago, in Pr. Wks., volume I, published 1890, page 94: ↩

  26. 1863, Cox, Instit., iii. ix. 730: ↩

  27. 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168: ↩

  28. 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff ‘lack skills to cope with dementia patients’”, in Guardian ‎: ↩

  29. 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC: ↩

  30. 1852–1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures ↩

  31. 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Resident Patient, Norton, published 2005, page 628: ↩

  32. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3: ↩

  33. c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]: ↩

  34. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, II.3: ↩

  35. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii: ↩

  36. 1609, Samuel Daniel, The Civile Wares: ↩

  37. 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses: ↩

  38. 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC: ↩

  39. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC: ↩

  40. 2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times ‎: ↩

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