ward off

Verb

ward off (third-person singular simple present wards off, present participle warding off, simple past and past participle warded off)

1. (transitive) To parry, or turn aside.
   • He raised his arms to ward off the attack.
   • Door guards are a detail that can be added readily to almost any garage door for the purpose of protecting the door from being broken off the hinges or for the protection that is afforded the customers of the garage. The simplest form of these are inclined slides for warding off the front or rear...1920 November 25, “Protected Garage Door and Car Fenders”, in Motor Age, volume XXXVIII, number 22, Chicago, page 48, column 1
2. To, while in possession of the ball, move the free hand or the hand and arm holding the butt end of the stick laterally into a defending player's body or stick.
3. (transitive) To avert or prevent.
   • He wore garlic to ward off vampires.
   • Group 2, the never or prophylactic group, was also small compared with group 1. Iodine lockets, string shirts, underwear made of special material such as flannel (particularly red), sheep wool, angora wool, clothes made of modern synthetic fibres, and so on, would ward off arthritis.1976 March 27, F. Dudley Hart, “History of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis”, in British Medical Journal, volume 1, number 6012, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 763