ward

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɔːd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɔɹd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

ward (plural wards)

1. (archaic or obsolete) A warden; a guard; a guardian or watchman.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     no gate they found, them to withhold,
     Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late […] .

Etymology 2

From Middle English ward, warde, from Old English weard (“watching, ward, protection, guardianship; advance post; waiting for, lurking, ambuscade”), from Proto-West Germanic *wardu, from Proto-Germanic *wardō (“protection, attention, keeping”), an extension of the 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.

Noun

ward (countable and uncountable, plural wards)

1. Protection, defence.
   1. The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.)
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

        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 […]

   2. 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.

      • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

        I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward.

      • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande , Dublin: Societie of Stationers, , →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland  (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: Society of Stationers, Hibernia Press, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

        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.

   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.
      • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

        Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point.

   5. (historical, Scots law) Land tenure through military service.
   6. (obsolete) A guard or watchman; now replaced by warden.
      • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

        there is remuneration for the best ward of mine

      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 15:

        th'aſſieged Caſtles ward
        Their ſtedfaſt ſtonds did mightily maintaine

      • 1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

        For want of other ward,
        He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.

2. A protected place, and by extension, a type of subdivision.
   1. An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
      • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 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 R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 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.

      • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “ The Eighth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. , London: Printed for Jacob Tonson , →OCLC:

        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 part of a hospital, with beds, where patients reside.
      • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 , New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:

        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.

      • 2011 December 16, Denis Campbell, “Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients'”, in Guardian‎:

        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 to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.

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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

        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, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes , London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
        , II.1:

        A man muſt thorowly ſound himſelfe, and dive into his heart, and there ſee by what wards or ſprings the motions ſtirre.

      • 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 furnished with corresponding notches.

      • 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Resident Patient, Norton, published 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.

Derived terms

• (part of a hospital where patients reside): convalescent ward, critical ward, psychiatric ward

Descendants

• → Swahili: wodi

Translations

Etymology 3

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

Verb

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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3:

     Whoſe gates he found faſt ſhut, ne liuing wight
     To ward the ſame, nor anſwere commers call

2. (transitive) To defend, to protect.
   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Tell him it was a hand that warded him
     From a thousand dangers.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, II.3:

     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)
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii:

     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, […]

   • 1609, Samuel Daniel, The Civile Wares:

     Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.

   • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses:

     The pointed javelin warded off his rage.

   • 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: , London: James Brackstone, , →OCLC:

     It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.

4. (intransitive) To be vigilant; to keep guard.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     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.

Synonyms

• (to fend off): ward off

Derived terms

• beward

Translations

See also

• Ward on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Ward in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• draw

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vart/, , , ,

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: Wart (general), wart, wahrt (some speakers)

Verb

ward

1. Archaic form of wurde, the first/third-person singular preterite of werden
   • Genesis 1:3

     Und Gott sprach: »Es werde Licht!« Und es ward Licht.

     And God said: "Let there be light." And there was light.

   • 1918, Heinrich Mann, Der Untertan‎, Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, page 477:

     Wohingegen Diederich von tiefem Wohlgefallen erfüllt ward durch die Teckel des Kaisers, die vor den Schleppen der Hofdamen keine Achtung zu haben brauchten.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• This form was still common, though formal, until the first half of the 20th century. Since then it has become archaic and is now no longer part of normal standard German. It may still be met with in archaicizing poetic language, including popular stock phrases such as und ward nicht mehr gesehen (“and was never seen again”).

Further reading

• “ward” in Duden online

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic وَرْد (ward).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wart/

• Audio (Gozo)

  (file)

Noun

ward m (collective, singulative warda, dual wardtajn or wardtejn, plural urad or uradi or urud or uradijiet, paucal wardiet)

1. rose, roses

Derived terms

Manx

Etymology

Borrowed from English ward.

Noun

ward m (genitive singular ward, plural wardyn)

1. ward (in a hospital)

Old High German

Verb

ward

1. first/third-person singular past indicative of werdan