ward
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɔːd/
ipa: /wɔɹd/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d
Forms: form: wards
form: warding
form: warded
form: warded
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Whoſe gates he found faſt ſhut, ne liuing wight
To ward the ſame, nor anſwere commers call
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 3:
glosses: To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.
examples: text: Tell him it was a hand that warded him
From a thousand dangers.
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
text: 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.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, II.3:
glosses: To defend, to protect.
examples: text: 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, […]
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] 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:
text: Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.
ref: 1609, Samuel Daniel, The Civile Wares:
text: The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
ref: 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses:
text: It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.
ref: 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:
synonyms: ward off
glosses: To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches. (usually followed by off)
examples: text: They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward,
And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
text: 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 gravitational decline by hauling my saggy, sorry self to the gym.
ref: 2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times:
glosses: To be vigilant; to keep guard.
glosses: To act on the defensive with a weapon.
Derived terms: beward
Related terms: Ward in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)