Obs. exc. arch. Forms: α. 4– vaward (6 va-ward), 5–6 vawarde. β. Sc. 5 waward(e, waywarde, 5–6 wawart. γ. 5 vauwarde, fauward, 6–7 vauward; 5–6 vawe-, 6 vawwarde, 6, 8 vawward. δ. 5 wowarde, 5–6 vowarde, 6–7 voward. [Reduced form of vaumward VASTWARD. See VANT- prefix.]
1. Mil. = VANGUARD 1.
α. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, VIII. 48. Thai saw in battale cum arayit The vaward with baner displayit.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 3617. Þe men out of Medy he mas … To enverom alle þe vaward of all þe vile yndes.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 3554. Abel, his son bold and hard, Bare the baner in the vaward.
c. 1471. Arriv. K. Edw. IV. (Camden), 29. His vawarde so sore oppressyd them, with shott of arrows, that they gave them right-a-sharpe shwre.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. V., 48. Beside this, he appoincted a vawarde, of the which he made capitayne Edward duke of Yorke.
1579. Digges, Stratiot., 132. To give their attendance at the lodging of their Chiefes of the Armie, whether it be of the Battaile, or Vawarde.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., II. 178. The English were the first that entered with great vigour upon the front and vaward.
1640. Habington, Edw. IV., 81. The Vaward commanded by the Duke of Glocester, the Rere by the Lord Hastings.
[1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vaward, an obsolete Word for Van-Guard.]
1828. Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 116. He intrusted the command of the vaward, or centre, to the Earl of Moray.
1846. Torrens, Rem. Milit. Hist., 148. The disposition of troops seems … to have been a vaward, or advance, a centre, and rear.
β. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, XII. 340. And thai haf tald thair reboyting, Thai of the waward.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VI. xix. 2261. He askyt at þe kynge Til haf þe wawarde [v.r. wawart] of his batale.
1500–20. [see b].
γ. c. 1400. Sege Jerus., 430. Þe fauward Titus toke,… With six þousand soudiours.
c. 1440. Bone Florence, 604. The vawewarde and the myddyll soone, And the rere-warde owte of Rome The grete oost removyd and yode.
1529. Rastell, Pastyme (1811), 222. Havinge the rule of the Frenche kynges vawewarde.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), I. 127. Sebastian … was Lieue tenant general of the Vawward of Diocletian the emperour.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 39. The Vauward of his armie was conducted by Iohn and Andronicus.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, VIII. 119. Then, Diomede, unaided as he was, Rush’d ardent to the vaw-ward.
δ. 1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, IX. xxviii. In his passage to gouerne the wowarde.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), VII. 241. In the vowarde of whom were foote men with bawes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 179. Whiche is more fered of the feendes than ony vowarde of a batayle.
1543. St. Papers Hen. VIII. (1849), IX. 393. The other galees of thEmperour appoynted for the vowarde.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 1593/1. Forthwith the Lord Lieutenant sent to the vowarde, commaunding that they shoulde marche towarde the towne.
1631. Chapman, Cæsar & Pompey, Plays, 1873, III. 162. The voward of the foe Is ranged already.
b. In fig. context.
1401. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 57. It ar ȝe that stonden bifore, in Anticristis vauwarde.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlii. 58. Than to battell thai war arreyit all, And ay the wawart kepit Thocht.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. (1634), 10. And therefore he doubteth not to set their mouthes in the vaward, as being strongly armed to subdue their madnesse.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. viii. (1622), 30. Her haire being laide at the full length downe her backe, bare shew as if the voward fayled, yet that would conquer.
c. fig. The forefront; the early part.
In later use only as an echo of Shakespeare.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 200. We that are in the vaward of our youth.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 22. The vaward or subburbes of my narration.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., I. 378. She is not in the vaward of youth. Ibid., Chron. Canongate, vi. Those who write themselves in the vaward of youth.
1884. A. Birrell, Obiter Dicta, Ser. I. 208. He … states that he and his accomplices … are in the vaward of their youth.
2. attrib. (Cf. VANWARD a.)
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xxiv. Myself will rule this central host,… My sons command the vaward post. Ibid., xxxiii. Where’s now their victor vaward wing? Ibid. (1814), Lord of Isles, VI. xii. To centre of the vaward-line Fitz-Louis guided Amadine.
