[f. WARD v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of guarding (a place) or furnishing it with a guard.
c. 1425. trans. Vegetius’ De Re Milit. (MS. Digby 233), lf. 222 b/2. More necligent of here wardynge of here walles.
1595. Locrine, III. ii. 54. What strange accidents Makes you to leaue the warding of the campe.
b. The action or duty of keeping guard. Chiefly in watching and warding: see WATCHING vbl. sb.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VI. xxxi. And while his weary kingdome safely sleeps, All restlesse night he watch and warding keeps.
1734. in Temple & Sheldon, Hist. Northfield, Mass. (1875), 202. 1 day’s work with his oxen … and 1 day’s warding for a soldier which did work at the mount.
† 2. concr. a. A defensive force or work. b. The body of watchmen. Obs.
a. 13[?]. K. Alis., 7114 (Laud MS.). þer he dude his meignee alle Abouten þe diches maken walle And holde hem wiþinne wiþ grete wardynges.
1382. Wyclif, Ezek. iv. 2. And thou shalt ordeyne aȝens it a bisegynge; and thou shalt bilde waardingis [1388 strengthis; Vulg. munitiones].
b. 1549. Wriothesley, Chron. (Camden), II. 25. And this day the wardinge of the gates beganne their watch in harnis.
3. Imprisonment. Sc.
1497. Acta Dom. Conc., II. 48. Andro … was chargit to compere under the pane of warding of his person.
1524. Diurn. Occurr. (Bannatyne Club), 9. All the kirkis of thar dyocies wer interdyted induring their [sc. the two bishops’] wairding.
1563–4. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 259. The said Alexander is be hir Hienes fred of his said warding.
1601. P. Ogleby, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), 33. What satisfaction can my warding be to England.
1689. in Acts Parlt. Scot. (1875), XII. 75/2. Executione Be poynding and wardeing against the deficients in payment of the town revenue.
1825. Scott, Talism., xvi. He was put under warding for a time.
1826. G. J. Bell, Comm. Laws Scot. (ed. 5), II. 538. The warrant for imprisonment for debt in Scotland, analogous to that under the English statute-merchant, is called an Act of Warding.
1912. E. Russell, Maitland of Lethington, vii. 237. By wholesale warding of all who were thought dangerous … she … kept them from joining Moray.
4. Guardianship, keeping.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke xi. 1–4. That thei maie vnder the tuicion and wardyng of their heauenly father, bee safely defended against Satans ingiens.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xv. They began to crack about the Bass and which o’ them twa was to get the warding o’t.
5. The fashioning of the wards of keys, in warding file (see quots.).
1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 824. Sometimes, as in the warding files for locksmiths, the two broad surfaces are left uncut or safe.
1881. Young, Every Man his own Mechanic, § 1495. 676. If a key will not exactly fit, a little filing of the nicks with a thin flat file called a ‘warding file’ may have the desired effect.
6. Comb.: † warding-place, (a) a place where guard is kept; (b) Sc., a place of confinement for prisoners.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lv. 15. Like as one warding-place maketh souldyers felowelike in a camp.
1573. Reg. Privy Council Scot., II. 232. Thay intendit to have biggit … a warding place and a place of pressoun for keping of malefactouris.
1752. J. Louthian, Form of Process, 78. All Persons in whose Custody the said C. D. is detained, furthwith to set him at Liberty, out of their Tolbooths, and others their warding Places.
