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ward - 18 dictionary results

ward

  [wawrd]
Use ward in a Sentence
–noun
1. a division or district of a city or town, as for administrative or political purposes.
2. one of the districts into which certain English and Scottish boroughs are divided.
3. a division, floor, or room of a hospital for a particular class or group of patients: a convalescent ward; a critical ward.
4. any of the separate divisions of a prison.
5. a political subdivision of a parish in Louisiana.
6. Mormon Church. one of the subdivisions of a stake, presided over by a bishop.
7. Fortification. an open space within or between the walls of a castle or fortified place: the castle's lower ward.
8. Law.
a. a person, esp. a minor, who has been legally placed under the care of a guardian or a court.
b. the state of being under the care or control of a legal guardian.
c. guardianship over a minor or some other person legally incapable of managing his or her own affairs.
9. the state of being under restraining guard or in custody.
10. a person who is under the protection or control of another.
11. a movement or posture of defense, as in fencing.
12. a curved ridge of metal inside a lock, forming an obstacle to the passage of a key that does not have a corresponding notch.
13. the notch or slot in the bit of a key into which such a ridge fits.
14. the act of keeping guard or protective watch: watch and ward.
15. Archaic. a company of guards or a garrison.
–verb (used with object)
16. to avert, repel, or turn aside (danger, harm, an attack, an assailant, etc.) (usually fol. by off): to ward off a blow; to ward off evil.
17. to place in a ward, as of a hospital or prison.
18. Archaic. to protect; guard.
Origin:
bef. 900; (n.) ME warde, OE weard; (v.) ME warden, OE weardian; c. MD waerden, G warten; cf. guard

Related forms:
wardless, adjective

Synonyms:
1. precinct. 10. protégé. 16. parry, prevent.

Ward

  [wawrd]
–noun
1. (Aaron) Montgomery, 1843–1913, U.S. merchant and mail-order retailer.
2. Ar⋅te⋅mas  [ahr-tuh-muhs] , 1727–1800, American general in the American Revolution.
3. Ar⋅te⋅mus  [ahr-tuh-muhs] , (Charles Farrar Browne), 1834–67, U.S. humorist.
4. Barbara (Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth), 1914–81, English economist and author.
5. Mrs. Humphry (Mary Augusta Arnold), 1851–1920, English novelist, born in Tasmania.
6. Sir Joseph George, 1856–1930, New Zealand statesman, born in Australia: Prime Minister 1906–12, 1928–30.
7. Lester Frank, 1841–1913, U.S. sociologist.
8. Nathaniel (“Theodore de la Guard”), 1578?–1652, English clergyman, lawyer, and author in America.
9. a male given name.

-ward

 
a native English suffix denoting spatial or temporal direction, as specified by the initial element: toward; seaward; afterward; backward.
Also, -wards.

Origin:
ME; OE -weard towards; c. G -wärts; akin to L vertere to turn (see verse )

Usage note:
Both -ward and -wards occur in such words as backward, forward, upward, and toward. The -ward form is by far the more common in edited American English writing.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To ward
ward   (wôrd)   
n.  
  1. A division of a city or town, especially an electoral district, for administrative and representative purposes.
  2. A district of some English and Scottish counties corresponding roughly to the hundred or the wapentake.
    1. A room in a hospital usually holding six or more patients.
    2. A division in a hospital for the care of a particular group of patients: a maternity ward.
    3. Law A minor or incompetent person placed under the care or protection of a guardian or court.
    4. A person under the protection or care of another.
    5. The projecting ridge of a lock or keyhole that prevents the turning of a key other than the proper one.
    6. The notch cut into a key that corresponds to such a ridge.
  4. One of the divisions of a penal institution, such as a prison.
  5. An open court or area of a castle or fortification enclosed by walls.
    1. Law A minor or incompetent person placed under the care or protection of a guardian or court.
    2. A person under the protection or care of another.
    3. The projecting ridge of a lock or keyhole that prevents the turning of a key other than the proper one.
    4. The notch cut into a key that corresponds to such a ridge.
  7. The state of being under guard; custody.
  8. The act of guarding or protecting; guardianship.
  9. A means of protection; a defense.
  10. A defensive movement or attitude, especially in fencing; a guard.
    1. The projecting ridge of a lock or keyhole that prevents the turning of a key other than the proper one.
    2. The notch cut into a key that corresponds to such a ridge.
tr.v.   ward·ed, ward·ing, wards
To guard; protect.
Phrasal Verb(s):
ward off
  1. To turn aside; parry: ward off an opponent's blows.
  2. To try to prevent; avert: took vitamins to ward off head colds.

[Middle English, action of guarding, from Old English weard, a watching, protection; see wer-3 in Indo-European roots.]
Ward   (wôrd)   
American merchant who established (1872) the mail-order business that bears his name.
Ward 1, Artemus 1727-1800.  
American Revolutionary general who directed Massachusetts troops in the siege of Boston, until George Washington relieved him of the command and drove the British from the city (1776).
Ward 2, Artemus  
See Charles Farrar Browne.
Ward, Mary Augusta Arnold Known as Mrs. Humphry Ward. 1851-1920.  
British writer whose novels include Robert Elsmere (1888).
Ward, Nathaniel Pen name Theodore de la Guard. 1578?-1652.  
English clergyman and writer in America. He codified Massachusetts law (1641) and is primarily known for his satire The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (1645).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Ward

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.]

Ward

Ward\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Warded; p. pr. & vb. n. Warding.] [OE. wardien, AS. weardian to keep, protect; akin to OS. ward?n to watch, take care, OFries. wardia, OHG. wart?n, G. warten to wait, wait on, attend to, Icel. var?a to guarantee defend, Sw. v[*a]rda to guard, to watch; cf. OF. warder, of German origin. See Ward, n., and cf. Award, Guard, Reward.]

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. [Obs.]

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.

Ward

Ward\, 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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : ward
Spanish: sala,
German: die Station,
Japanese: 病室
More Translations »

ward  (n.)
O.E. weard "a guarding, a watchman, a sentry," from W.Gmc. *wardo (cf. O.S. ward, O.N. vörðr, O.H.G. wart). Used for administrative districts (at first in the sense of guardianship) from 1378; of hospital divisions from 1749. Meaning "minor under control of a guardian" is from 1433. Ward-heeler is 1890, from heeler "loafer, one on the lookout for shady work" (1870s).

ward  (v.)
O.E. weardian "to keep guard," from P.Gmc. *wardojan- (cf. O.S. wardon, O.N. varða "to guard," O.Fris. wardia, M.Du. waerden "to take care of," O.H.G. warten "to guard, look out for, expect," Ger. warten "to wait, wait on, nurse, tend"), from *wardo- (see ward (n.)). Fr. garder, It. guardare, Sp. guardar are Gmc. loan-words. Meaning "to parry, to fend off" (now usually with off) is recorded from 1571.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: ward
Pronunciation: 'word
Function: noun
1 : a division of a city for representative, electoral, or administrative purposes
2 a : a person who by reason of incapacity (as minority or incompetency) is under the control of a guardian b : a person who by reason of incapacity is under the protection of a court either directly or through a guardian appointed by the court called also ward of the court —compare INTERDICT —ward·ship noun
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Main Entry: ward
Pronunciation: 'wo(&)rd
Function: noun
: a division in a hospital; especially : a large room in a hospital where anumber of patients often requiring similar treatment are accommodated ward>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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ward (wôrd)
n.

  1. A room in a hospital usually holding six or more patients.
  2. A division in a hospital for the care of a particular group of patients.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Ward

a prison (Gen. 40:3, 4); a watch-station (Isa. 21:8); a guard (Neh. 13:30).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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