''warden'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''warden'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125123911-00-⌔

warden - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

warden (plural wardens)

• (archaic or literary) A guard or watchman.
  • ✤ He called to the wardens on the outside battlements.¹
• A chief administrative officer of a prison.
  • ✤ The warden of the state prison, Ezekiel Purdy, was a kind man if stern. He invariably made all newcomers a little speech of welcome […]²
• An official charged with supervisory duties or with the enforcement of specific laws or regulations; such as a game warden or air-raid warden.
• A governing official in various institutions
  • ✤ the warden of a college

Verb

warden (third-person singular simple present wardens, present participle wardening, simple past and past participle wardened)

• To carry out the duties of a warden.

Noun

warden (plural wardens)

• A variety of pear.
  • ✤ Faith I would have had him rosted like a warden in a brown Paper, and no more talk on’t:³
  • ✤ I must have saffron to colour the warden pies;⁴
  • ✤ In September, come Grapes; Apples; Poppies of all colours; Peaches; Melo-Cotones; Nectarines; Cornelians; Wardens; Quinces.⁵
  • ✤ * Wardens, a name given to pears which never melt, are long keeping, and used for cooking only. The name comes from the Cistercian Abbey of Warden in Beds. Parkinson’s Warden is now Black Worcester. There are Spanish, White and Red Wardens.*⁶

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈwɔːdən/
• (US) IPA: /ˈwɔɹdən/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)dən

Etymology 1

From Middle English wardein, from Anglo-Norman wardein, from warder (“to guard”), variant of Old French guarder (“to guard”) (whence modern French garder, also English guard), from Proto-Germanic ﹡ward-; related to Old High German wartēn (“to watch”). Compare guardian, French gardien, from Old French guardian, guardein. Compare also ward and reward. Doublet of guardian.

Etymology 2

From Middle English wardon, origin uncertain; perhaps from Anglo-Norman or Anglo- Latin wardo, -ōnis.⁷

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter IV, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC: ↩

2. 1934, Nathanael West, “Chapter 7”, in A Cool Million ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩

3. c. 1607–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Cupid’s Revenge”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act II, scene i: ↩

4. c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]: ↩

5. 1625, Francis[Bacon], “Of Gardens”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC: ↩

6. 1903, E. Bartrum, The Book of Pears and Plums ‎${}^{[2]}$, London: John Lane, page 30: ↩

7. “wardǒun, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

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Secondary

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