Definition of "ward"

(archaic or obsolete) A warden; a guard; a guardian or watchman.  quotations

Protection, defence.

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

   Quotations

   • Before the dore ſat ſelfe-conſuming Care,Day and night keeping wary watch and ward,For feare leaſt Force or Fraud ſhould vnawareBreake in […]

     1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

2. Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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 Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

   • 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 State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […]; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809,

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.  examples

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

   Quotations

   • 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 […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iv]

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

6. (obsolete) A guard or watchman; now replaced by warden.  quotations

   Quotations

   • 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: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]

   • th'aſſieged Caſtles wardTheir ſtedfaſt ſtonds did mightily maintaine

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

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

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

A protected place, and by extension, a type of subdivision.

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

   Quotations

   • 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 […].

     1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 149

   • 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, George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, published 2011, page 78

2. A section or subdivision of a prison.  examples

3. An administrative division of a borough, city or council.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Throughout the trembling city placed a guard,Dealing an equal share to every ward.

     1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] 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 […]

4. (UK) A division of a forest.  examples

5. (Mormonism) A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.  examples

6. A part of a hospital, with beds, where patients reside.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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 White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 168

   • 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.

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

A person under guardianship.

1. A minor looked after by a guardian.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

2. (obsolete) An underage orphan.

An object used for guarding.

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

   Quotations

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

     1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

   • 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.

     1852–1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures

   • 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, Norton, published 2005, page 628

(transitive) To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To defend, to protect.  quotations  examples

(transitive) To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches. (usually followed by off)  quotations  examples

(intransitive) To be vigilant; to keep guard.  quotations  examples

(intransitive) To act on the defensive with a weapon.  examples