▪ I. warder, n.1
(ˈwɔːdə(r))
Also 7 wardour, Sc. wairdour.
[a. AF. wardere, wardour, agent-n. f. warder, north-eastern dial. var. of OF. garder to guard.]
I. One who wards or guards.
1. A soldier or other person set to guard an entrance; also, a watchman on a tower.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy xi. 4690 Comyn to the castell,..the Grekes Ingird, gripped the warders, And all the fonnet folke fell to the dethe. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 90 So were the warders [L. stationes] remoued from the gates the same daye. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades iii. v. (1592) 338 When the temple was builded, there were porters and warders of the temple appointed among the Leuits. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 56 Though Castles topple on their Warders heads. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. x. (1628) 327 Wee call him that waiteth at the Towre one of the ward or a warder. 1679–88 Moneys Secr. Serv. Chas. II & Jas. II (Camden) 93 Wages due to their respective husbands as late wardours in the Tower of London. 1697 Dryden æneis ii. 453 The Warders of the Gate but scarce maintain Th'unequal Combat. 1802 Mrs. Radcliffe Gaston de Blondeville Posth. Wks. (1826) III. 4 Amongst these, were the wardours of a postern, near the north walls. 1813 Scott Trierm. i. xiii, Upon the watch-tower's airy round No warder stood his horn to sound. 1831 Wordsw. Yarrow Revisited 6 Once more, by Newark's Castle-gate Long left without a warder, I stood. 1853 Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxii, The gates [of Lincoln's Inn] are shut; and the night-porter, a solemn warder with a mighty power of sleep, keeps guard in his lodge. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 65 Memorie, the Warder of the Braine, Shall be a Fume, and the Receit of Reason A Lymbeck onely. 1818 Scott Br. Lamm. xxvi, There mounted guard on the other side of the mirror two stout warders of Scottish lineage; a jug,..and a quegh, or bicker. 1849 Lytton K. Arthur vi. vi, Hill after hill the land's grey warders rose. 1880 W. Watson Prince's Quest iii, A fair⁓built seaport, warder of the land And watcher of the wave. |
† 2. The title of an English official in Ireland.
| 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 97 Warders in Leinster per annum one thousand three hundred ten li nineteene s. two pence. |
3. An official in charge of prisoners in a jail.
| 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. IV. 22 The prisoner's confinement was not strict... He was permitted to go into the country under the care of a warder. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 152 The convicts and warders in Milbank Prison. 1904 A. Griffiths 50 Yrs. Publ. Service xvii. 241 The Chief Warder..had been promoted to his office from Dartmoor. |
4. attrib. and Comb.
| 1831 James Phil. Augustus xix, De Coucy hastened to demand of the squire wherefore he had sounded the great warder horn, which hung in the watch-tower. 1864 Swinburne Atalanta 1213 Where the dawn Cheers first these warder gods that face the sun. 1904 A. Griffiths 50 Yrs. Publ. Service xii. 163 The warder officers arraigned before him all those whom they desired to report for offences. |
† II. 5. Sc. A person in ward, a prisoner. Obs. rare.
| 1584 Acts Jas. VI (1814) III. 352/1 The gard and keping of prissoneris and wardours. 1629 Reg. Privy Council Scot. Ser. ii. III. 12 Who under pretext and cullour of freindship unto the wairdours sould crave accesse unto them... Who..sould stryke the jaylour and so give way to the wairdours and escape. |
▪ II. warder, n.2
(ˈwɔːdə(r))
Also 9 (? erron.) wardour.
[See warderer.]
In early use: A staff or wand. Later, the baton or truncheon carried as a symbol of office, command, or authority; esp. as used to give the signal for the commencement or cessation of hostilities in a battle or tournament.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 516/2 Warder, staffe..bacillus..perticulus. 1500 Maldon (Essex) Court Rolls Bundle 59, No. 3 b, Super quo dictus constabularius eum percussit cum predicto warder. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. V, 49 b, Before whom there went..syr Thomas of Herpingham..with a warder in his hand, and when he cast up his warder al the army shouted. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 396 The king cast downe his warder and commaunded them to stay. 1643 R. Baker Chron., Rich. I (1653) 88 [At the coronation] William de Patricke, Earl of Salisbury.. bare the Warder or Rod, having on the top thereof a Dove. 1765 H. Walpole Castle of Otranto iii, So saying, the herald cast down his warder. 1813 Scott Trierm. ii. xx, When the strife grows warm,..thy king commands, Thou drop the warder from thy hands. 1824 Meyrick Ant. Armour II. 32 At this King Edward threw down his wardour, the marshal cried ‘Ho!’ and the combat ceased. 1898 S. Weyman Shrewsbury xxxii. (1917) 253 The portrait of a man in armour, with a warder in his mailed hand, frowned down on me. |
▪ III. † warder, n.3 Obs. rare.
[? Corruption of Norw. varde (cf. ON. varða, varð-r of the same meaning).]
A beacon or sea-mark. Obs.
| 1584 R. Norman tr. Safegard of Sailers 50 b, When you are a little within, there [Norway coast] stands a little Warder which is a beacon or marke before the entrie. Ibid. 53 b, Then as far from that lies another little rocke in sight aboue water, and there stands a warder or marke vpon it. 1588 Ashley Wagenar's Mariners Mirr. ii. Plot VII, On the North side stande two warders [Du. twee warderen] vpon a high hill. |
▪ IV. warder, n.4 rare.
(ˈwɔːdə(r))
[f. ward v.1 + -er1.]
† a. Fencing. One who parries. b. One who wards off (something). Also warder-off.
| 1599 G. Silver Paradoxes of Def. Wks. (1898) 7 It is a great question, and especially amongst the Rapier-men, who hath the vantage of the thruster, or of the warder. Ibid. 13 [He] hath the aduantage, whether he be striker, thruster or warder. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxviii. 63 Mallius e'en such help brought me, a warder of harm. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets ii. 41 Empedocles..received in consequence the title of κωλυσανέµας, or warder-off of winds. |
▪ V. warder, v.
(ˈwɔːdə(r))
[f. warder n.1]
trans. To provide with a warder or sentinel.
| 1849 Ruskin On the old Road (1905) I. 218 Samuel Prout, Its countless churches wardered by saintly groups of solemn statuary. 1850 S. Dobell Roman vi. Poet. Wks. (1875) 92 Heavenly calm Warders the room. 1901 J. H. M{supc}Carthy If I were King vi, The Lord of Montcorbier was, indeed, wardered..by very different stars from the fellow of the Fircone. |
▪ VI. warder
see warday.