ward

• 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[…] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […],...

1. The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.)

2. Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.

   • 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. - 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book V:
   • I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward. - c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
   • 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. - 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present...

3. (fantasy) An enchantment or spell placed over a designated area or social unit, that prevents any tresspasser from entering; approaching; or even being able to locate said protected premises or demographic.

4. (fencing) A guarding or defensive motion or position.

   • Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point. - c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...

5. (historical, Scots law) Land tenure through military service.

• 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[…]. -...
• 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. - 2000 August 8, George R[aymond] R[ichard] Martin, “Sansa...

1. An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.

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.
   • The sayde Iohn Mansell chargyd the mayre, that euery Alderman in hys warde shulde vppon the morowe folowyng assemble hys wardemote, [etc.]. - a. 1513, Fabyan, Chron., published 1533, § vii, page 28b:
   • […] within v wardes of the same Towne which byn conteyned in seuerall partes in the same Towne ther hath byn v Cunstables that is to say in euery ward oon for the conseruacion of the kynges Peace and other good Rule […]...

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 part of a hospital, with beds, where patients reside.

   • Since sick people were apt to be present, he could not always depend on a lively young crowd in the same ward with him, and the entertainment was not always good. - 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in...
   • Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes...

• After the trial, little Robert was declared a ward of the state.
• 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...

1. A minor looked after by a guardian.

2. (obsolete) An underage orphan.

1. The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.

   • A man muſt thorowly ſound himſelfe, and dive into his heart, and there ſee by what wards or ſprings the motions ſtirre. - , II.1
   • 1852–1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures 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...
   • 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. - 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Resident Patient,...

• th'aſſieged Caſtles ward Their ſtedfaſt ſtonds did mightily maintaine - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 15:
• no gate they found, them to withhold, Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late […]. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
• there is remuneration for the best ward of mine - c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...

• Whoſe gates he found faſt ſhut, ne liuing wight To ward the ſame, nor anſwere commers call - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC,...

• Tell him it was a hand that warded him From a thousand dangers. - c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
• 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. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, II.3:

• Draw forth thy ſword, thou mightie man at armes, Intending but to raiſe my charmed ſkin: And Ioue himſelfe will ſtretch his hand from heauen, To ward the blow, and ſhield me ſafe from harme, […] - c. 1587–1588 (date...
• Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again. - 1609, Samuel Daniel, The Civile Wares:
• The pointed javelin warded off his rage. - 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses:

Synonyms: ward off

• They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward, And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant […] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie,...
• Having slapped into middle age, where thoughts of one’s general infallibility are tempered by the realisation that those creaky, achy complaints are signs of certain decrepitude, I have decided to ward against further...