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Child vs Ward - What's the difference?

child | ward |

In obsolete terms the difference between child and ward

is that child is a female infant; a girl while ward is an underage orphan.

As nouns the difference between child and ward

is that child is a daughter or son; an offspring while ward is a guard; a guardian or watchman.

As a verb ward is

to keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.

As a proper noun Ward is

{{surname|A=An English occupational|from=occupations}} for a guard or watchman.

child

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (archaic)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • A daughter or son; an offspring.
  • (figuratively) An offspring; one born in, or considered a product of the culture of, a place.
  • * 1984 , Mary Jane Matz, The Many Lives of Otto Kahn: A Biography , page 5:
  • For more than forty years, he preached the creed of art and beauty. He was heir to the ancient wisdom of Israel, a child of Germany, a subject of Great Britain, later an American citizen, but in truth a citizen of the world.
  • (figuratively) A member of a tribe, a people or a race of beings; one born into or considered a product of a people.
  • * 2009 , Edward John Moreton Dunsany, Tales of Wonder , page 64:
  • Plash-Goo was of the children of the giants, whose sire was Uph. And the lineage of Uph had dwindled in bulk for the last five hundred years, till the giants were now no more than fifteen foot high; but Uph ate elephants
  • (figuratively) A thing or abstraction derived from or caused by something.
  • * 1991 , (w, Midnight's Children) , (Salman Rushdie) (title)
  • A person who is below the age of adulthood; a minor (person who is below the legal age of responsibility or accountability).
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Joseph Stiglitz)
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Globalisation is about taxes too , passage=It is time the international community faced the reality: we have an unmanageable, unfair, distortionary global tax regime. […] It is the starving of the public sector which has been pivotal in America no longer being the land of opportunity – with a child' s life prospects more dependent on the income and education of its parents than in other advanced countries.}}
  • (computing) A data item, process or object which has a subservient or derivative role relative to another data item, process or object.
  • * 2011 , John Mongan, ?Noah Kindler, ?Eric Giguère, Programming Interviews Exposed
  • The algorithm pops the stack to obtain a new current node when there are no more children (when it reaches a leaf).
  • (obsolete) A female infant; a girl.
  • * Shakespeare
  • A boy or a child , I wonder?

    Synonyms

    * (daughter or son) boy, fruit of one's loins, girl, kid, offspring * (young person) bairn, boy, brat, girl, kid, lad, lass * See also

    Antonyms

    * (daughter or son) father, mother, parent * (person below the age of adulthood) adult * parent

    Derived terms

    * boomerang child * childhood * childish * childless * childlike * love-child * lovechild * manchild * middle child * only child * perpetual child * problem child * schoolchild * war child * with child

    See also

    * orling

    References

    * Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary (accessed November 2007). * American Heritage Dictionary , Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company (2003). English nouns with irregular plurals 1000 English basic words

    ward

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) ward, from (etyl) . Cognate with German Wart.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic, or, obsolete) A guard; a guardian or watchman.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.xi:
  • no gate they found, them to withhold, / Nor ward to wait at morne and euening late [...].

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) ward, warde, from (etyl) ; English guard is a parallel form which came via Old French.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Protection, defence.
  • # (obsolete) A guard or watchman; now replaced by warden .
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • the best ward of mine honour
  • #* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • The assieged castle's ward / Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain.
  • #* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • For want of other ward , / He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
  • # The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc. ).
  • #* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vii:
  • Before the dore sat selfe-consuming Care, / Day and night keeping wary watch and ward , / For feare least Force or Fraud should vnaware / Breake in
  • # Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
  • #* 1485 , Sir (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book V:
  • So forth the presoners were brought before Arthure, and he commaunded hem into kepyng of the conestabyls warde , surely to be kepte as noble presoners.
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward .
  • #* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
  • 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.
  • # An enchantment or spell placed over a designated area, or a social unit, that prevents any tresspasser from entering, approaching and/or even from being able to locate said-protected premises
  • # (historical, Scots law) Land tenure through military service.
  • # (fencing) A guarding or defensive motion or position.
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Thou knowest my old ward ; here I lay, and thus I bore my point.
  • A protected place.
  • # (archaic) An area of a castle, corresponding to a circuit of the walls.
  • #* 1942 , (Rebecca West), Black Lamb and Grey Falcon , Canongate 2006, page 149:
  • Diocletian.
  • #* 2000 , (George RR Martin), A Storm of Swords , Bantam 2011, p. 78:
  • With the castle so crowded, the outer ward had been given over to guests to raise their tents and pavilions, leaving only the smaller inner yards for training.
  • # A section or subdivision of a prison.
  • # An administrative division of a borough, city or council.
  • #* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • Throughout the trembling city placed a guard, / Dealing an equal share to every ward .
  • # (UK) A division of a forest.
  • # (Mormonism) A subdivision of the LDS Church, smaller than and part of a stake, but larger than a branch.
  • # A room in a hospital where patients reside.
  • #* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 16, author=Denis Campbell, work=Guardian
  • , title= Hospital staff 'lack skills to cope with dementia patients' , passage=Many hospitals have not taken simple steps to lessen the distress and confusion which dementia sufferers' often feel on being somewhere so unfamiliar – such as making signs large and easy to read, using colour schemes to help patients find their way around unfamiliar wards and not putting family mementoes such as photographs nearby.}}
  • A person under guardianship.
  • # A minor looked after by a guardian.
  • #* , chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.}}
  • # (obsolete) An underage orphan.
  • An object used for guarding.
  • # The ridges on the inside of a lock, or the incisions on a key.
  • #*, II.1:
  • A man must thorowly sound himselfe, and dive into his heart, and there see by what wards or springs the motions stirre.
  • #* Tomlinson
  • The lock is mademore 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.
  • #* 1893 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), ‘The Resident Patient’, Norton 2005, page 628:
  • With the help of a wire, however, they forced round the key. Even without the lens you will perceive, by the scratches on this ward , where the pressure was applied.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) warden, from (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.
  • * Spenser
  • Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight / To ward the same.
  • To defend, to protect.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Tell him it was a hand that warded him / From a thousand dangers.
  • * 1603 , John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , II.3:
  • they went to seeke their owne death, and rushed amidst the thickest of their enemies, with an intention, rather to strike, than to ward themselves.
  • To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off .
  • * Daniel
  • Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.
  • * Addison
  • The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
  • * I. Watts
  • It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.
  • To be vigilant; to keep guard.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
  • They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward , / And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant [...].
  • To act on the defensive with a weapon.
  • Synonyms
    * (to fend off) ward off

    Anagrams

    * draw

    See also

    * * ----