Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

watch and ward en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (historical, uncountable) The charge or care of certain officers to keep a watch by night and a guard by day in towns, cities, and other districts, for the preservation of the public peace.
  2. (broadly, uncountable) Uninterrupted vigilance.
    • The narrow seas around these isles, where British admirals keep watch and ward upon the marches of the Atlantic Ocean, are subject to the turbulent sway of the West Wind. 1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter XXV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC:
    • 1917, Lee Wilson Dodd, "To America" (poem), in Fifes and Drums You need A starker breed To cherish you and guard, Keep watch and ward, Or strike if strike they must!

watch and ward en · VERB

Meanings

  1. To keep constant watch over
    • we might have been carried in swift safety, and watched and warded by well-paid pointsmen, for half the present fares 1894, John Ruskin, Munera Pulveris:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
watches and wards Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
watched and warded Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
watched and warded Tense=Past lexicographic
watching and warding Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic