Ward

1. n. A notch or slit in a key corresponding to a ridge in the lock which it fits; a ward notch.
2. n. To keep in safety; to watch; to guard; formerly, in a specific sense, to guard during the day time.
3. n. To defend; to protect.
4. n. To defend by walls, fortifications, etc.
5. n. To fend off; to repel; to turn aside, as anything mischievous that approaches; — usually followed by off.
6. v. i. To be vigilant; to keep guard.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.