Watch vs Ward - What's the difference?
watch | ward |
A portable or wearable timepiece.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.
The act of guarding and observing someone or something.
* Milton
* Addison
A particular time period when guarding is kept.
* Shakespeare
* Milton
A person or group of people who guard.
* Bible, Matthew xxvii. 65
The post or office of a watchman; also, the place where a watchman is posted, or where a guard is kept.
* Shakespeare
(nautical) A group of sailors and officers aboard a ship or shore station with a common period of duty: starboard watch'', ''port watch .
(nautical) A period of time on duty, usually four hours in length; the officers and crew who tend the working of a vessel during the same watch. (FM 55–501).
The act of seeing, or viewing, for a period of time.
* 2004 , Charles P. Nemeth, Criminal law
(label) To look at, see, or view for a period of time.
* , chapter=10
, title= (label) To observe over a period of time; to notice or pay attention.
(label) To mind, attend, or guard.
*{{quote-book, year=1899, author=(Stephen Crane)
, title=, chapter=1
, passage=[…] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. They watch it all th' time b'cause they know blame well there ain't hardly room fer their feet fer th' pikers an' tin-horns an' thimble-riggers what are layin' fer 'em. […]”}}
(label) To be wary or cautious of.
(label) To attend to dangers to or regarding.
(label) To remain awake with a sick or dying person; to maintain a vigil.
(label) To be vigilant or on one's guard.
(label) To act as a lookout.
To serve the purpose of a watchman by floating properly in its place.
To be awake.
* 1485 , (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book X:
(archaic, or, obsolete) A guard; a guardian or watchman.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.xi:
Protection, defence.
# (obsolete) A guard or watchman; now replaced by warden .
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
#* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
# The action of a watchman; monitoring, surveillance (usually in phrases keep ward etc. ).
#* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , II.vii:
# Guardianship, especially of a child or prisoner.
#* 1485 , Sir (Thomas Malory), (w, Le Morte d'Arthur) , Book V:
#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
#* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
# 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)
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:
#* 2000 , (George RR Martin), A Storm of Swords , Bantam 2011, p. 78:
# A section or subdivision of a prison.
# An administrative division of a borough, city or council.
#* (John Dryden) (1631-1700)
# (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= A person under guardianship.
# A minor looked after by a guardian.
#* , chapter=22
, title= # (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:
#* Tomlinson
#* 1893 , (Arthur Conan Doyle), ‘The Resident Patient’, Norton 2005, page 628:
To keep in safety, to watch over, to guard.
* Spenser
To defend, to protect.
* Shakespeare
* 1603 , John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , II.3:
To fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off .
* Daniel
* Addison
* I. Watts
To be vigilant; to keep guard.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
To act on the defensive with a weapon.
In transitive terms the difference between watch and ward
is that watch is to attend to dangers to or regarding while ward is to fend off, to repel, to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; -- usually followed by off.In intransitive terms the difference between watch and ward
is that watch is to act as a lookout while ward is to act on the defensive with a weapon.As a proper noun Ward is
{{surname|A=An English occupational|from=occupations}} for a guard or watchman.watch
English
(wikipedia watch)Etymology 1
As a noun, from (etyl) wacche, from (etyl) . See below for verb form.Noun
(es)- More people today carry a watch on their wrists than in their pockets.
- shepherds keeping watch by night
- All the long night their mournful watch they keep.
- The second watch of the night began at midnight.
- I did stand my watch upon the hill.
- Might we but hear / Or whistle from the lodge, or village cock / Count the night watches to his feathery dames.
- The watch stopped the travelers at the city gates.
- Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch ; go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
- He upbraids Iago, that he made him / Brave me upon the watch .
- A quick watch of Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange sends this reality home fast. Amoral, vacuous, cold-blooded, unsympathetic, and chillingly evil describe only parts of the story.
Derived terms
* hurricane watch * on one's watch * on the watch * pocket watch * stand watch * stopwatch * tornado watch * wristwatchEtymology 2
As a verb, from (etyl) wacchen, from (etyl) .Verb
(es)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}
- So on the morne Sir Trystram, Sir Gareth and Sir Dynadan arose early and went unto Sir Palomydes chambir, and there they founde hym faste aslepe, for he had all nyght wacched [...].
Usage notes
* When used transitively to mean look at something, there is an implication that the direct object is something which is capable of changing.Antonyms
* ignoreDerived terms
* clock-watcher * watch it * watch like a hawk * watch the pennies * watch this space * watchman * watchtowerSee also
* wait * wake 1000 English basic wordsward
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) ward, from (etyl) . Cognate with German Wart.Noun
(en noun)- 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)- the best ward of mine honour
- The assieged castle's ward / Their steadfast stands did mightily maintain.
- For want of other ward , / He lifted up his hand, his front to guard.
- 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
- 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.
- I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward .
- 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.
- Thou knowest my old ward ; here I lay, and thus I bore my point.
- Diocletian.
- 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.
- Throughout the trembling city placed a guard, / Dealing an equal share to every ward .
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.}}
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.}}
- A man must thorowly sound himselfe, and dive into his heart, and there see by what wards or springs the motions stirre.
- 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.
- 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)- Whose gates he found fast shut, no living wight / To ward the same.
- Tell him it was a hand that warded him / From a thousand dangers.
- 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.
- Now wards a felling blow, now strikes again.
- The pointed javelin warded off his rage.
- It instructs the scholar in the various methods of warding off the force of objections.
- They for vs fight, they watch and dewly ward , / And their bright Squadrons round about vs plant [...].