Definition of "ward" []

• A division of a city or town, especially an electoral district, for administrative and representative purposes. (noun)
• A district of some English and Scottish counties corresponding roughly to the hundred or the wapentake. (noun)
• A room in a hospital usually holding six or more patients. (noun)
• A division in a hospital for the care of a particular group of patients: a maternity ward. (noun)
• One of the divisions of a penal institution, such as a prison. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In explaining the term ward heeler, you described a heeler as “derived from a dog that a master brings to heel,” used to describe “a minor politician who slavishly followed his ward leader.”"
• "She honestly does not know where all of her ward is at or at least the last time I talked to her she didn't."
• "When I was at Oxford, each one of us had responsibility for three or four families in our congregation, which we call a ward."