ward

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   block forming a division of a hospital or a suite of rooms shared by patients who need a similar kind of care

   They put me in a 4-bed ward.

2. 2
   noun

   A warden; a guard; a guardian or watchman.

   th'aſſieged Caſtles ward Their ſtedfaſt ſtonds did mightily maintaine

3. 3
   noun

   Protection, defence.

   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[…]

4. 4
   noun

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

   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[…].

5. 5
   noun

   A person under guardianship.

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

6. 6
   verb

   To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.

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

7. 7
   verb

   To defend, to protect.

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

8. 8
   verb

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

   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, […]

Etymology

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.