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noun
- Protection, defence.
- The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.).
- guardianship, Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
- (Scots Law, historic) Land tenure through military service.
- (fencing) A guarding or defensive motion or position.
- A protected place.
- (archaic) An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
- 1942: 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... " Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006, p. 149)
- A section or subdivision of a prison.
- An administrative division of a borough, city or council.
- On our last visit to Tokyo, we went to Chiyoda and visited the Emperor's palace.
- (Mormon) A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.
- A room in a hospital where patients reside.
- A person under guardianship.
- A minor looked after by a guardian.
- After the trial, little Robert was declared a ward of the state.
- (obsolete) An underage orphan.
- An object used for guarding.
- The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.
- 1893: With the help of a wire, however, they forced round the key. Even without the lens you will perceive, by the scratches on this , where the pressure was applied. " Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Resident Patient" (Norton 2005, p.628)
verb
- (transitive) To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a specific sense, to guard during the day time.
- (transitive) To defend; to protect.
- (transitive) To fend off; to repel; to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.
- (intransitive) To be vigilant; to keep guard.
- (intransitive) To act on the defensive with a weapon.
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