ward

Less common meanings

6. 6
   protectverbtransitive

   To guard or protect someone or something from harm.

   Charms were hung above the door to ward the household from evil.

   A line of cedars wards the farmhouse from the prairie wind.

   Similarguard, protect, shield, defend

7. 7
   custodynounarchaiccountable or uncountable

   Guardianship or custody, especially of a child or a prisoner.

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

   c. 1604, William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”

   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, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande

   Similarcustody, guardianship, care, keeping, charge

   Note

   Custody as a condition you are in, which is why it most often appears as in ward. In Shakespeare's All's Well, That Ends Well, "to whom I am now in ward" means under that person's authority. Spenser's "the wards and marriages of gentlemen's children" treats the custody of heirs as something a lord could dispose of. Malory uses the same word for keeping noble prisoners. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Shakespeare's All's Well, That Ends Well contains the quotation; Bertram speaks it about his subjection to the king. gutenberg.org
   • Spenser uses the quoted phrase for wardships and marriages under lords' control. upload.wikimedia.org
   • Malory uses ward for the custody of noble prisoners in Le Morte d'Arthur. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   verbintransitive

   To be on the alert and keep guard, watching for danger or intrusion.

   UsageUse ward against before a danger: ward against attack. Watch and ward also occurs in older writing.

   Similarwatch

   Note

   Spenser's "they watch and dewly ward" pairs it with watch, echoing watch and ward. Jo Ellison, writing in the Financial Times in 2017, decides "to ward against further gravitational decline." Her line shows the against construction alive in light, joking prose. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Spenser's quoted wording pairs watch with intransitive ward in The Faerie Queene, Book II, Canto VIII. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
   • Jo Ellison's Financial Times article containing the quotation was published in 2017. en.wiktionary.org
   • Ellison uses the exact quoted infinitive phrase. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   nounarchaiccountable or uncountable

   The action of keeping watch or guard over a place or person; vigilant monitoring or surveillance.

   By the king's order, the garrison kept ward on the border through the winter.

   Watch and ward was maintained along the coast whenever invasion threatened.

   UsageMostly in set phrases: keep ward and watch and ward.

   Similarwatch, guard, vigil, surveillance

   Note

   The act of watching, and the root of most of the other nouns. Old English weard meant "watching, protection, guardianship." It comes from a Germanic stem meaning "attentive" that also gives wary and beware. Spenser's Care sits "Day and night keeping wary watch and ward." Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Ward denotes the action of watching for danger. en.wiktionary.org
   • The watching/protection meaning underlies most other noun senses; this is supported by inference from their grouping under Wiktionary's second etymology. en.wiktionary.org
   • Old English weard meant watching, protection and guardianship. en.wiktionary.org
   • Ward derives from a Germanic stem meaning attentive, also ancestral to wary and beware. en.wiktionary.org
   • In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book II, canto VII, stanza 25, Care sits keeping watch; the quotation is exact and belongs to the narrator. gutenberg.org
10. 10
    nounobsolete

    A warden, guard, or watchman; one charged with guarding a place or keeping watch.

    Note

    The person on watch, and a separate Old English word from the "watching" noun behind the other nouns here. Weard meant "keeper, watchman, guardian," with cognates in Dutch waard and German Wart. Spenser still uses it for the sentry himself: "Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late." Read it there as guard, since the word now points the other way, at the person in a guardian's care. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The watchman sense and the watching/protection senses descend from distinct Old English nouns. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English weard meant keeper, watchman or guardian. en.wiktionary.org
    • Dutch waard and German Wart are cognates. en.wiktionary.org
    • Spenser uses the quoted wording for a guard in the narration of The Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto XI. en.wikisource.org
11. 11
    castle yardnouncountable or uncountable

    An area within a castle enclosed by a circuit of its walls.

    Attackers who broke through the gate found themselves trapped in the outer ward.

    Stables and workshops once lined the castle's middle ward.

    Similarbailey, courtyard, enclosure

    Note

    Here the guarded space itself takes the name. Each ring of walls encloses a ward, so a castle with several circuits has an outer ward and an inner one. George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords (2000) gives the outer ward to guests' tents and keeps the inner yards for training. Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) counts four wards in Diocletian's palace. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • A castle ward is a protected enclosure bounded by defensive walls. en.wikipedia.org
    • Successive castle enclosures can form outer and inner wards. english-heritage.org.uk
    • George R. R. Martin wrote A Storm of Swords, first published in 2000. georgerrmartin.com
    • The novel assigns the outer ward to guests' tents and leaves the smaller inner yards for training. en.wiktionary.org
    • Rebecca West wrote Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, first published in 1941. en.wikipedia.org
    • West describes Diocletian's palace at Aspalaton as having four wards. erenow.org
12. 12
    noun

    A local subdivision of the LDS Church, forming part of a stake and larger than a branch.
13. 13
    noun

    The fixed ridges inside a lock that block a wrong key from turning, or the matching incisions cut into a key to clear them.
14. 14
    noun

    A guarding motion or position taken to defend against an attack.
15. 15
    nounUK

    A division of a forest; one of the administrative sections into which a large forest, especially a royal forest in Britain, is divided.
16. 16
    noun

    In Scots law, a form of land tenure in which land was held from a superior in return for military service.