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ward off

[wawrd] Origin

ward

[wawrd]
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.
EXPAND
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, especially 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.
COLLAPSE
verb (used with object)
16.
to avert, repel, or turn aside (danger, harm, an attack, an assailant, etc.) (usually followed 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.

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Ward off is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

Origin:
before 900; (noun) Middle English warde, Old English weard; (v.) Middle English warden, Old English weardian; cognate with Middle Dutch waerden, German warten; compare guard

ward·less, adjective


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

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
ward off
 
vb
(tr, adverb) to turn aside or repel; avert

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

ward
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.
EXPAND
garder, It. guardare, Sp. guardar are Gmc. loan-words. Meaning "to parry, to fend off" (now usually with off) is recorded from 1571.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

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.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

ward off

  1. Turn aside, parry, as in He tried to ward off her blows. [Second half of 1500s]

  2. Try to prevent, avert, as in She took vitamin C to ward off a cold. [Mid-1700s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
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