Ward

Definition of 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.
- Spenser.
2.One who, or that which, guards; garrison; defender; protector; means of guarding; defense; protection.
For the best ward of mine honor.
- Shak.
The assieged castle's ward
Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain.
- Spenser.
For want of other ward,
He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
- Dryden.
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.
- Gen. xl. 3.
I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward.
- Shak.
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.
- Spenser.
4.A guarding or defensive motion or position, as in fencing; guard.
5.One who, or that which, is guarded.
6.A minor or person under the care of a guardian; as, a ward in chancery.
6.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.
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.
- Tomlinson.
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.
7.A division of a county.
8.A division, district, or quarter of a town or city.
Throughout the trembling city placed a guard,
Dealing an equal share to every ward.
- Dryden.
9.A division of a forest.
10.A division of a hospital; as, a fever ward.
v. t.1.
[imp. & p. p. Warded; p. pr. & vb. n. 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.
- Spenser.
2.To defend; to protect.
Tell him it was a hand that warded him
From thousand dangers.
- Shak.
3.To defend by walls, fortifications, etc.
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.
- Daniel.
The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
- Addison.
It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.
- I. Watts.
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.
- Sir P. Sidney.

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