Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to: navigation, search
See also: Ward and -ward



Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English ward, from Old English weard (keeper, watchman, guard, guardian, protector; lord, king; possessor), from Proto-Germanic *warduz (guard, keeper), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (to heed, defend). Cognate with German Wart.


ward (plural wards)

  1. (archaic or obsolete) A guard; a guardian or watchman.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.xi:
      no gate they found, them to withhold, / Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late [...].

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English ward, warde, from Old English weard (watching, ward, protection, guardianship; advance post; waiting for, lurking, ambuscade), from Proto-Germanic *wardō (protection, attention, keeping), an extension of Germanic stem *wara- "attentive" (English wary, beware), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (to cover). Cognate with German Warte (watchtower), warten (wait for); English guard is a parallel form which came via Old French.


ward (plural wards)

  1. Protection, defence.
    1. (obsolete) A guard or watchman; now replaced by warden.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
        the best ward of mine honour
      • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
        The assieged castle's ward / Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain.
      • John Dryden (1631-1700)
        For want of other ward, / He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
    2. The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.).
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vii:
        Before the dore sat selfe-consuming Care, / Day and night keeping wary watch and ward, / For feare least Force or Fraud should vnaware / Breake in []
    3. Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
      • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V:
        So forth the presoners were brought before Arthure, and he commaunded hem into kepyng of the conestabyls warde, surely to be kepte as noble presoners.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
      • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)
    4. An enchantment or spell placed over a designated area, or a social unit, that prevents any tresspasser from entering, approaching and/or even from being able to locate said-protected premises
    5. (historical, Scots law) Land tenure through military service.
    6. (fencing) A guarding or defensive motion or position.
      • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
  2. A protected place.
    1. (archaic) An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
      • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate 2006, page 149:
        Diocletian [] must certainly have derived some consolation from the grandeur of Aspalaton, the great arcaded wall it turned to the Adriatic, its four separate wards, each town size, and its seventeen watch-towers [].
      • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam 2011, p. 78:
        With the castle so crowded, the outer ward had been given over to guests to raise their tents and pavilions, leaving only the smaller inner yards for training.
    2. A section or subdivision of a prison.
    3. An administrative division of a borough, city or council.
      On our last visit to Tokyo, we went to Chiyoda ward and visited the Emperor's palace.
      • John Dryden (1631-1700)
        Throughout the trembling city placed a guard, / Dealing an equal share to every ward.
    4. (UK) A division of a forest.
    5. (Mormonism) A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.
    6. A room in a hospital where patients reside.
  3. A person under guardianship.
    1. A minor looked after by a guardian.
      After the trial, little Robert was declared a ward of the state.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, The Mirror and the Lamp:
        Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.
    2. (obsolete) An underage orphan.
  4. An object used for guarding.
    1. The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.
      • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.1:
        A man must thorowly sound himselfe, and dive into his heart, and there see by what wards or springs the motions stirre.
      • Tomlinson
        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.
      • 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Resident Patient’, Norton 2005, page 628:
        With the help of a wire, however, they forced round the key. Even without the lens you will perceive, by the scratches on this ward, where the pressure was applied.

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English warden, from Old English weardian (to watch, guard, keep, protect, preserve; hold, possess, occupy, inhabit; rule, govern), from Proto-Germanic *wardōną, *wardāną (to guard), from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (to heed, defend).


ward (third-person singular simple present wards, present participle warding, simple past and past participle warded)

  1. (transitive) To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.
    • Spenser
      Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight / To ward the same.
  2. (transitive) To defend, to protect.
    • Shakespeare
      Tell him it was a hand that warded him / From a thousand dangers.
      they went to seeke their owne death, and rushed amidst the thickest of their enemies, with an intention, rather to strike, than to ward themselves.
  3. (transitive) To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.
    • Daniel
      Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.
    • Addison
      The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
    • I. Watts
  4. (intransitive) To be vigilant; to keep guard.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:
      They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward, / And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant [...].
  5. (intransitive) To act on the defensive with a weapon.


See also[edit]


Alternative forms[edit]



  1. (archaic) First-person singular indicative past form of werden.
  2. (archaic) Third-person singular indicative past form of werden.
    Und Gott sprach: »Es werde Licht!« Und es ward Licht. [1]



ward f pl

  1. Collective plural of warda



Borrowing from English ward.


ward m (genitive ward, plural wardyn)

  1. ward (in a hospital)