Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as vanward.
  • Being in the van or the front; foremost; front.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The fore part; van.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The vanguard.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From an aphetism of Anglo-Norman avantwarde, a variant of Old French avant-guarde.

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Examples

  • You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

    The second part of King Henry the Fourth 2004

  • QUOTATION: We that are in the vaward of our youth.

    Quotations 1919

  • You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls; and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

    Act I. Scene II. The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth 1914

  • It is true that in other places he represents himself as old, and again in another states that he and his accomplices in the Gadshill robbery are in the vaward of their youth.

    Obiter Dicta Augustine Birrell 1891

  • His army was arranged in four "battles," with Randolph to lead the vaward and watch against any attempt to throw cavalry into Stirling.

    The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 John [Editor] Rudd 1885

  • She is not in the vaward of youth, but John is but two or three years my junior.

    The Journal of Sir Walter Scott From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford Walter Scott 1801

  • : "Their bands i 'the vaward;" and figuratively in M. N.

    The Lady of the Lake Walter Scott 1801

  • You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

    The Second Part of King Henry IV 1598

  • But I grow old; I am not in the vaward of my youth, mistress. "

    The Line of Love Dizain des Mariages James Branch Cabell 1918

  • Theseus. — “And since we have the vaward of the day,

    Tiger-lilies 1867

Comments

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  • "COMINIUS: As I guess, Marcius,

    Their bands in the vaward are the Antiates,

    Of their best trust; o'er them Aufidius,

    Their very heart of hope."

    - William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'.

    August 28, 2009

  • "Vaward attacks blast apart hangars and tarmacs: blam, blam."

    Eunoia by Christian Bök (upgraded edition), p 29

    May 20, 2010