7 results for: Wraith

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
wraith    Audio Help   [reyth] Pronunciation Key
–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.]

wraithlike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Wraith

To learn more about Wraith visit Britannica.com

© 2008 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
wraith    Audio Help   (rāth)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent just before that person's death.
  2. The ghost of a dead person.
  3. Something shadowy and insubstantial.


[Origin unknown.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
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."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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.]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

wraith

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

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

View results from: Dictionary | Thesaurus | Encyclopedia | All Reference | the Web

Share This:   Share This: del.icio.usShare This: digg.comShare This: FacebookShare This: furl.netShare This: www.netscape.comShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: www.google.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: blinklist.comShare This: newsvine.comShare This: ma.gnolia.comShare This: reddit.comShare This: favorites.live.comShare This: tailrank.com

Perform a new search, or try your search for "Wraith" at: