Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WAR'BLES, n.

In farriery, small hard tumors on the backs of horses, occasioned by the heat of the saddle in traveling, or by the uneasiness of its situation; also, small tumors produced by the larvae of the gad fly, in the backs of horses, cattle, &c. – Cyc.

WAR'BLING, n.

The act of shaking or modulating notes; singing.

WAR'BLING, ppr.

1. Quavering the voice; modulating notes; singing.
2. adj. Filled with musical notes; as, the warbling glade. – Trumbull.

WAR'BLING-LY, adv.

In a warbling manner.

WAR'-COUN-CIL, n.

A council of war.

WARD, adv. [or prep.]

In composition, as in toward, homeward, is the Sax. weard, from the root of L. verto, &c. It corresponds to the L. versus.

WARD, n.

1. Watch; act of guarding. Still when she slept, he kept both watch and ward. – Spenser.
2. Garrison; troops to defend a fort; as, small wards left in forts. [Not in use.] – Spenser.
3. Guard made by a weapon in fencing. For want of other ward, / He lifted up his hand his from to guard. – Dryden.
4. A fortress; a strong hold. – Shak.
5. One whose business is to guard, watch and defend; as, a fire-ward. A certain district, division or quarter of a town or city, committed to an alderman. There are twenty-six wards in London.
6. Custody; confinement under guard. Pharaoh put his butler and baker in ward. Gen. xl.
7. A minor or person under the care of a guardian. See Blackstone's chapter on the rights and duties of guardian and ward.
8. The state of a child under a guardian. I must attend his majesty's commands, to whom I am now in ward. – Shak.
9. Guardianship; right over orphans. It is inconvenient in Ireland, that the wards and marriages of gentlemen's children should be in the disposal of any of those lords. – Spenser.
10. The division of a forest.
11. The division of a hospital.
12. A part of a lock which corresponds to its proper key.

WARD, v.i. [waurd.]

1. To be vigilant; to keep guard. [Obs.]
2. To act on the defensive with a weapon. She drove the stranger to no other shift, than to ward and go back. – Sidney. And on their warding arms light bucklers bear. – Dryden.

WARD, v.t. [waurd; Sax. weardian; Sw. vårda; Dan. værger; probably from Sax. warian, werian; Goth. waryan; D. weeren, to defend, guard, prevent; W. gwaru, to fend; allied to wary, aware; Fr. garder, for guarder, It. guardare, Sp. guardar. The primary sense is to repel, to keep off; hence to stop; hence to defend by repelling or other means.]

1. To guard; to keep in safety; to watch. Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight / To ward the same. – Spenser. In this sense, ward is obsolete, as we have adopted the French of the same word, to guard. We now never apply ward to the thing to be defended, but always to the thing against which it is to be defended. We ward off a blow or dagger, and we guard a person or place.]
2. To defend; to protect. Tell him it was a hand that warded him / From thousand dangers. – Shak. [Obs. See the remark, supra.]
3. To fend off; to repel; to turn aside any thing mischievous that approaches. Now wards a failing blow, now strikes again. – Daniel. The pointed jav'lin warded off his rage. – Addison. It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections. – Watts. [This is the present use of ward. To ward off is now the more general expression, nor can I, with Johnson, think it less elegant.]

WARD'ED, pp.

Guarded. Warded off, prevented from attacking or injuring.

WARD'EN, n.

1. A keeper; a guardian.
2. An officer who keeps or guards; a keeper; as, the warden of the Fleet or Fleet prison.
3. A large pear. Warden of the Cinque ports, in England, an officer or magistrate who has the jurisdiction of a port or haven. There are five such ports. Warden of a university, is the master or president.

WARD'ENSHIP, n.

The office of a warden.

WARD'ER, n.

1. A keeper; a guard. The warders of the gate. – Dryden.
2. A truncheon by which an officer of arms forbad fight. – Shak. Warders of the tower, officers who attend state prisoners.

WARD'ING, ppr.

Guarding; defending.

WARD'MOTE, n. [ward and Sax. mote, meeting.]

In law, a court held in each ward in London.

WARD'ROBE, n. [ward and robe; Fr. garde-robe.]

1. A room or apartment where clothes or wearing apparel is kept.
2. Wearing apparel in general.

WARD-ROOM, n. [ward and room.]

In a ship, a room over the gun-room, where the lieutenants and other principal officers sleep and mess. – Mar. Dict.

WARD'SHIP, n.

1. Guardianship; care and protection of a ward.
2. Right of guardianship. Wardship is incident to tenure in socage. – Blackstone.
3. Pupilage; state of being under a guardian. – K. Charles.

WARD'-STAFF, n.

A constable's or watchman's staff.

WARE, a. [Sax. war; Dan. vær. It belongs to the root of ward. We never use ware by itself. But we use it in aware, beware, and in wary. It was formerly in use.]

1. Being in expectation of; provided against. 2 Tim. iv.
2. Wary; cautious. – Milton.

WARE, n. [plur. Wares. Sax. ware; D. waar; G. waare; Sw. vara; Dan. vare.]

Goods; commodities; merchandise; usually in the plural; but we say, China ware, earthen-ware, potters' ware. It was formerly used in the singular, and may be so used still. Let the dark shop commend the ware. – Cleaveland. Sea ware, a marine plant, a species of Fucus. – Lee.

WARE, v. [pret. of Wear. Obs. It is now written Wore.]

WARE, v.i.

To take heed of. Then ware a rising tempest on the main. [Obs.] – Dryden. [We now use beware as a single word, though in fact it is not.]

WARE, v.t. [pret. Wore. This is evidently from the root of veer. See Veer.]

To cause a ship to change her course from one board to the other, by turning her stern to the wind; opposed to tacking, in which the head is turned to the wind; as, to ware a ship. We wore ship and stood to the southward.

WARE'FUL, a. [from ware, wary.]

Wary; watchful; cautious. [Not used.]