The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ward \Ward\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Warded; p. pr. & vb. n. Warding.] [OE. wardien, AS. weardian to keep, protect; akin to OS. ward?n to watch, take care, OFries. wardia, OHG. wart?n, G. warten to wait, wait on, attend to, Icel. var?a to guarantee defend, Sw. v[*a]rda to guard, to watch; cf. OF. warder, of German origin. See Ward, n., and cf. Award, Guard, Reward.]
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To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a specific sense, to guard during the day time.
Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight To ward the same.
--Spenser. -
To defend; to protect.
Tell him it was a hand that warded him From thousand dangers.
--Shak. To defend by walls, fortifications, etc. [Obs.]
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To fend off; to repel; to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.
Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.
--Daniel.The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
--Addison.It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.
--I. Watts.
Wiktionary
n. The act of one who wards. vb. (present participle of ward English)
Usage examples of "warding".
Around the wound they swarmed out in such numbers that Alec stepped back, instinctively raising his hand in a warding sign.
He had nae ill-will to the Whig bodies, and liked little to see the blude rin, though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting, watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, that he couldna avoid.
Once again Danni came to appreciate the marvel of the ooglith cloaker, for she did not feel much of a pressure buildup as they descended, as if the living suit was somehow warding the weight of the depths.
Whistling tunelessly as the sailors aboard the Darielle had done, they stared fixedly ahead or eastward, fingering amulets and making warding gestures in the direction they dared not look.
But downstairs is the charitable Guster, holding by the handrail of the kitchen stairs and warding off a fit, as yet doubtfully, the same having been induced by Mrs.
Every time the name Antrax was spoken, the Rindge showed signs of discomfort, casting glances in all directions, making warding motions, even when they were several hours away from the ruins.
Just the names: sciamantium and sciamancy took it from a familiar candlelight vigil to something new and unsettling: a night watch for shadowforms out in the marshes, the shadowlands, a warding off of unproven enemies in the backwaters of forever.
It is curious that while in England the burgage-tenure was deemed a species of socage, to distinguish it from the military holdings, in Scotland it was strictly a military holding, by the service of watching and warding for the defence of the burgh.
The other hand was flung out in an odd ungraceful flinging, cockangted toward a gun tube, bespeaking a quick surprise, I thought, and the iron fingers were all sprangled out and splayed upward, as though reaching, or warding, or wanting to receive some offer.
The tower was ringed by a moat over which tiny lightnings of amethyst hue flickered from time to timesome warding magic, no doubt.
The hidden panel leading to the stairs up to his rooms appeared untampered with from the outside but opening it, he found that the warding glyph at the base of the stairs had been tripped.
A small warding woven around the box ensured no hand but hers could safely open it.
You, Vizz, Volle, and Zigg, must have the warding of our homes whiles we be gone.
Lorn rides easily beside Maran as the two lancer officers near the wall warding the Accursed Forest.
The cruel discrepancies this time stood exposed, a self-damning truth, that with unblighted mage talent, he would have-set wardings.