- Warded
- Ward Ward, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Warded}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Warding}.] [OE. wardien, AS. weardian to keep, protect; akin
to OS. ward?n to watch, take care, OFries. wardia, OHG.
wart?n, G. warten to wait, wait on, attend to, Icel. var?a to
guarantee defend, Sw. v[*a]rda to guard, to watch; cf. OF.
warder, of German origin. See {Ward}, n., and cf. {Award},
{Guard}, {Reward}.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a
specific sense, to guard during the day time.
[1913 Webster]
Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight To ward the same. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
2. To defend; to protect. [1913 Webster]
Tell him it was a hand that warded him From thousand dangers. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. To defend by walls, fortifications, etc. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
4. To fend off; to repel; to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off. [1913 Webster]
Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again. --Daniel. [1913 Webster]
The pointed javelin warded off his rage. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections. --I. Watts. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
