adv. (sb.) arch. [f. WHITHER adv. + -WARD.]
1. interrog. Towards or to what place? in what direction? whither? † Also with reference to situation (nearly = whereabouts?). Also fig. or gen. Towards what?
c. 1200. Ormin, 17295. Þu ne mahht nohht … sen … Fra wheþennwarrd … he comm … ne whiderrwarrd he wendeþþ.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 161. Ðan þe safarinde men seð þe sa sterre, hie wuten sone wuderward hie sullen weie holden.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 307. Heo wende fram al hire kun,… & nuste an erþe ȝwderward, bote as þe wind blew.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1246. ‘Þou most now ga To paradis….’ ‘Yai, sir, wist i wyderward Þat tat vncuth contre ware.’
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 5916. Ȝeueþ gode tent, Whederward þat Pers ys went.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 782. He … asked of hire whiderward she wente.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xviii. 2008. For til wit … qweþirwart Þe thayne of Fiff þat tyme past.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VII. xiii. 232. Whether ward ar ye way ledyng this knyghte?
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, V. v. Aa iv b. Whytherwarde take I my iourneye? or whyther warde am I goynge?
1614. W. Browne, Sheph. Pipe, I. 510. Forth of auenture his way is went, But whitherward he draw, he conceitlesse Was.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, V. xiii. Unknowing whitherward to bend his way.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, I. xi. Whitherward to turn for a good course of life, was by no means too apparent.
1860. Trollope, Framley P., xlii. As one goes on pleasantly running down the path—whitherward?
2. rel. a. as compound relative: Towards the place that; usually in generalized or indefinite sense: Towards any place that, whithersoever.
c. 1205. Lay., 9994. Whudereward þa ferde heore flæm makeden, þe eorles heom siȝen to.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 168. Uorte … uoluwen þe hwuderward so þu euer wendest.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 21228. O sant mathu þe gospel-bok Quider-ward sumeuer he scok … wit him he bar.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2830. Whiderward as þei went al wast þei it founde.
c. 1375. Cursor M., 23523 (Fairf.). Quidder-wart [Trin. Whiderward so] an wil loke þai loke al.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxix. (1495), nn ij b/1. A way by the whyche a man maye goo whytherwarde that he woll.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell, I. 294. Shall he … conduct the King whitherward his Majesty wishes?
b. as simple relative: Towards which.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIII. iii. (Bodl. MS.). Þe wel springe and þe finalle ende whederward hit [sc. the river] renneþ.
1582. Allen, Martyrdom Campion (1908), 7. Whitherwarde by longe and great travail he came, going about by Rome … and by Remes.
1597. Beard, Theatre God’s Judgem., xix. (1612), 353. Bombadilla … was called home againe into Spaine: whitherward … as hee imbarked himselfe … there arose … a horrible … tempest.
1895. E. N. Braddon, in Sat. Rev., 21 Sept., 374/1. Three of our four guns are sent as ‘stops’ to advanced posts up the nullah, whitherward they make their way by forest routes.
3. sb. (nonce-use). Place towards which one goes.
1877. Blackie, Wise Men, 325. Athens hath no clew To track his whitherward.
So Whitherwards adv.
13[?]. K. Alis., 955 (Laud MS.). Who so wolde, he miȝth ryde … Whiderwardes so he wolde.
c. 1320. Sir Beues (A.), 2037. At þe kniȝt he askede þo ‘Whider-wardes is Mombraunt?’
1909–10. Sir W. Butler, Autobiog., xii. (1911), 186. Signs were showing above the surface in November 1875 plainly indicating the whitherwards of coming events.
