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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

wraith

–noun

1.	an apparition of a living person supposed to portend his or her death.

2.	a visible spirit.

[Origin: 1505–15; originally Scots; orig. uncert.

]

—Related forms

wraithlike, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Wraith

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

wraith Audio Help (rāth) Pronunciation Key
n.

An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's death.
The ghost of a dead person.
Something shadowy and insubstantial.

[Origin unknown.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
wraith

1513, "ghost," Scottish, of uncertain origin. Weekley suggests O.N. vorðr "guardian" in the sense of "guardian angel." Klein points to Gael., Ir. arrach "specter, apparition."

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

wraith
noun
a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters from his past" [syn: ghost]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Wraith

Ward\, n. [AS. weard, fem., guard, weard, masc., keeper, guard; akin to OS. ward a watcher, warden, G. wart, OHG. wart, Icel. v["o]r[eth]r a warden, a watch, Goth. -wards in da['u]rawards a doorkeeper, and E. wary; cf. OF. warde guard, from the German. See Ware, a., Wary, and cf. Guard, Wraith.]

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. "Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point." --Shak.

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." --Otway. (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. --Dryden. (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. --Knight.

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. [Obs.]

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wraith

wraith was Word of the Day on October 31, 2003.

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