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ward off

   Also found in: Idioms, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
Ward  (wôrd), (Aaron) Montgomery 1843-1913.
American merchant who established (1872) the mail-order business that bears his name.

Ward, Mary Augusta Arnold Known as Mrs. Humphry Ward. 1851-1920.
British writer whose novels include Robert Elsmere (1888).

Ward 1, Artemus 1727-1800.
American Revolutionary general who directed Massachusetts troops in the siege of Boston, until George Washington relieved him of the command and drove the British from the city (1776).

Ward 2, Artemus
See Charles Farrar Browne.

ward  (wôrd)
n.
1. A division of a city or town, especially an electoral district, for administrative and representative purposes.
2. A district of some English and Scottish counties corresponding roughly to the hundred or the wapentake.
3.
a. A room in a hospital usually holding six or more patients.
b. A division in a hospital for the care of a particular group of patients: a maternity ward.
4. One of the divisions of a penal institution, such as a prison.
5. An open court or area of a castle or fortification enclosed by walls.
6.
a. Law A minor or incompetent person placed under the care or protection of a guardian or court.
b. A person under the protection or care of another.
7. The state of being under guard; custody.
8. The act of guarding or protecting; guardianship.
9. A means of protection; a defense.
10. A defensive movement or attitude, especially in fencing; a guard.
11.
a. The projecting ridge of a lock or keyhole that prevents the turning of a key other than the proper one.
b. The notch cut into a key that corresponds to such a ridge.
tr.v. ward·ed, ward·ing, wards
To guard; protect.
Phrasal Verb:
ward off
1. To turn aside; parry: ward off an opponent's blows.
2. To try to prevent; avert: took vitamins to ward off head colds.

[Middle English, action of guarding, from Old English weard, a watching, protection; see wer-3 in Indo-European roots.]

ward off
Verb
to prevent (something unpleasant) from happening or from causing harm: to ward off the pangs of hunger, to ward off cancer cells
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Verb1.ward off - prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening; "Let's avoid a confrontation"; "head off a confrontation"; "avert a strike"
foreclose, forestall, preclude, prevent, forbid - keep from happening or arising; make impossible; "My sense of tact forbids an honest answer"; "Your role in the projects precludes your involvement in the competitive project"
2.ward offward off - avert, turn away, or repel; "Ward off danger"
defend - be on the defensive; act against an attack


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
Even should I break one of them with my first blow, for I figured that he would attempt to ward off the cudgel, he could reach out and annihilate me with the others before I could recover for a second attack.
How could you, my poor little unfledged nestling, find yourself food, and defend yourself from misfortune, and ward off the wiles of evil men?
And to ward off any envious attempts of another Isaac Boxtel, he wrote over his door the lines which Grotius had, on the day of his flight, scratched on the walls of his prison: --
 
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