2. To act on the defensive with a weapon.
She redoubling her blows drove the stranger to no
other shift than to ward and go back. --Sir P.
Sidney.
Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight To
ward the same. --Spenser.
Tell him it was a hand that warded him From thousand
dangers. --Shak.
3. To defend by walls, fortifications, etc. [Obs.]
4. 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.
Still, when she slept, he kept both watch and ward.
--Spenser.
2. One who, or that which, guards; garrison; defender;
protector; means of guarding; defense; protection.
For the best ward of mine honor. --Shak.
The assieged castle's ward Their steadfast stands
did mightily maintain. --Spenser.
For want of other ward, He lifted up his hand, his
front to guard. --Dryden.
3. The state of being under guard or guardianship;
confinement under guard; the condition of a child under a
guardian; custody.
And he put them in ward in the house of the captain
of the guard. --Gen. xl. 3.
I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am
now in ward. --Shak.
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. --Spenser.
4. A guarding or defensive motion or position, as in fencing;
guard. ``Thou knowest my old ward; here I lay, and thus I
bore my point.'' --Shak.
5. One who, or that which, is guarded. Specifically:
(a) A minor or person under the care of a guardian; as, a
ward in chancery. ``You know our father's ward, the
fair Monimia.'' --Otway.
(b) A division of a county. [Eng. & Scot.]
(c) A division, district, or quarter of a town or city.
Throughout the trembling city placed a guard,
Dealing an equal share to every ward. --Dryden.
(d) A division of a forest. [Eng.]
(e) A division of a hospital; as, a fever ward.
6.
(a) A projecting ridge of metal in the interior of a lock,
to prevent the use of any key which has not a
corresponding notch for passing it.
(b) A notch or slit in a key corresponding to a ridge in
the lock which it fits; a ward notch. --Knight.
The lock is made . . . more secure by attaching
wards to the front, as well as to the back,
plate of the lock, in which case the key must be
furnished with corresponding notches.
--Tomlinson.