warded

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of ward.

   The charm supposedly warded evil spirits away from the doorway.

   The village had long warded itself against raiders with a stone wall.

   Note

   A regular form in which one spelling serves both the simple past and the participle: they warded the gate; the gate was warded. In its fending-off meaning it nearly always travels with off, as in a blow warded off. Without off, warded leans toward guarding or protecting. A door warded by sentries is not the locksmith's adjective, where the wards are parts inside the lock.

   She raised her shield and warded off the blow.

   The danger was warded off before it reached the town.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of a lock: built with internal projections, called wards, that block any key not cut to match them.

   Antique furniture often used a warded mechanism that skilled thieves could pick with ease.

   He inherited an iron strongbox secured by a heavy warded lock.

   Note

   A locksmith's adjective built on the guarding sense of ward: the wards stand guard inside the lock and turn away the wrong key. It is an either-or word. A lock is warded or it is not, and it is never more warded than another. It usually sits directly before its noun, as in a warded lock or a warded mechanism, rather than after a verb.

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