wand

From Middle English wand, wond, from Old Norse vǫndr (“switch, twig”)[1], from Proto-Germanic *wanduz (“rod”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, twist, wind, braid”). Cognate with Icelandic vendi (“wand”), Danish vånd (“wand, switch”), German Wand (“wall, septum”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍃 (wandus, “rod”).

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wŏnd, IPA^(key): /wɒnd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɑnd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnd

wand (plural wands)

1. A hand-held narrow rod, usually used for pointing or instructing, or as a traditional emblem of authority.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     Then all of a sudden a number of armed men arranged in companies, and marshalled by officers who held ivory wands in their hands, came running swiftly towards us, having, so far as I could make out, emerged from the face of the precipice like ants from their burrows.

2. (by extension) An instrument shaped like a wand, such as a curling wand.
3. A stick or rod used by a magician (a magic wand), conjurer or diviner (divining rod).
   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 13, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, OCLC 213819910:

     Love is that blessed wand which wins the waters from the hardness of the heart.

4. A stick, branch, or stalk, especially of willow.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iii]:

     The skillful shepherd peeled me certain wands.

   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 17:

     In addition to the distinction of a white frock, every woman and girl carried in her right hand a peeled willow-wand, and in her left a bunch of white flowers.

5. A card of a particular suit of the minor arcana in tarot, the wands.

• staff; rod
• See also Thesaurus:stick

wand (third-person singular simple present wands, present participle wanding, simple past and past participle wanded)

1. (transitive) To scan (e.g. a passenger at an airport) with a metal detector.

• Dawn, Dwan, dawn

From Middle Dutch want, from Proto-Germanic *wanduz (“wickerwork; barrier, fence”). Cognate with German Wand.

• IPA^(key): /ʋɑnt/

• Audio

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• Hyphenation: wand
• Rhymes: -ɑnt
• Homophone: want

wand m (plural wanden, diminutive wandje n)

1. wall
2. face (as in mountain face)

• binnenwand
• buitenwand
• rotswand
• tussenwand
• wandcontactdoos
• wandtapijt

• Afrikaans: wand
• Negerhollands: wand

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ant

wand

1. first/third-person singular preterite of winden

• IPA^(key): /wɑnd/

From Proto-Germanic *wanduz (“mole”), from Proto-Indo-European *wendʰ- (“to turn, twist, wind, braid”).

wand f

1. mole (animal)

• wandeweorpe

From windan.

wand

1. first/third-person singular preterite of windan