Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Ward   /wɔrd/   Listen
noun
Ward  n.  
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."
2.
One who, or that which, guards; garrison; defender; protector; means of guarding; defense; protection. "For the best ward of mine honor." "The assieged castle's ward Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain." "For want of other ward, He lifted up his hand, his front to guard."
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." "I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward." "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."
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."
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."
(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."
(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. "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."
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.)


verb
Ward  v. t.  (past & past part. warded; pres. part. warding)  
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."
2.
To defend; to protect. "Tell him it was a hand that warded him From thousand dangers."
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." "The pointed javelin warded off his rage." "It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections."


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."


suffix
-wards, -ward  suff.  Suffixes denoting course or direction to; motion or tendency toward; as in backward, or backwards; toward, or towards, etc.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Ward" Quotes from Famous Books



... vain for details of the plots and characters, and specimens of the verse, of interludes and plays which time, opportunity, and publishers combine to withhold from him. Notable exceptions to this generalization exist. Such are Sir A.W. Ward's monumental English Dramatic Literature, and that delightful volume, J.A. Symonds' Shakespeare's Predecessors; but the former extends its survey far beyond the limits of early drama, while the latter too often passes by with brief mention ...
— The Growth of English Drama • Arnold Wynne
... proposition Euclid wrote, No formulae the text-books show, Will turn the bullet from your coat, Or ward the tulwar's downward blow: Strike hard, who cares—shoot straight, who can; The odds are on the cheaper man!" —RUDYARD ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver
... Padova, the Princess' father, never forgot that if he'd had his rights he would have been boss of his ward, and he always acted accordin'. So when he picked the Consul up on the road one night with a broken leg he gave him the best in the house, patched him up like an ambulance surgeon, and kept him board free until he could walk back to town. And so, when Miss Padova takes it ...
— Shorty McCabe • Sewell Ford
... Christ Church that if he doesn't call off the Woman's Club, I'll bring the women of the streets to the polls." And he added, "He knows I can do it." The boss of old Ward Eight, in which Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Cincinnati is located, had become alarmed by a serious threat to his power. Although this incident took place long before the coming of universal suffrage, Reverend Frank H. Nelson, ...
— Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati • Warren C. Herrick
... grass which separated them. Accident started him in the direction of the ape-man, and then his weak eyes discerned the enemy, and with a series of snorts he charged straight for him. The little rhino birds fluttered and circled about their giant ward. Among the branches of the trees at the edge of the clearing, a score or more monkeys chattered and scolded as the loud snorts of the angry beast sent them scurrying affrightedly to the upper terraces. Tarzan ...
— Jungle Tales of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs


More quotes...


Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com