Shahi - A visual dictionary

ward

See also Ward, -ward

(noun)
1. Protection, defence.
  1. The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc.).
  2. Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
  3. Land tenure through military service.
  4. A guarding or defensive motion or position.
2. A protected place.
  1. An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
    - 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate 2006, page 149:
      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...
  2. A section or subdivision of a prison.
  3. An administrative division of a borough, city or council.
    On our last visit to Tokyo, we went to Chiyoda ward and visited the Emperor's palace.
  4. A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.
  5. A room in a hospital where patients reside.
3. A person under guardianship.
  1. A minor looked after by a guardian.
    After the trial, little Robert was declared a ward of the state.
  2. An underage orphan.
4. An object used for guarding.
  1. The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.
    - 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Resident Patient’, Norton 2005, page 628:
      With the help of a wire, however, they forced round the key. Even without the lens you will perceive, by the scratches on this ward, where the pressure was applied.

(verb)
1. To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a specific sense, to guard during the day time.
2. To defend; to protect.
3. To fend off; to repel; to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.
4. To be vigilant; to keep guard.
5. To act on the defensive with a weapon.

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