guardian:
(plural: ‘guardians‘; pronunciation: the letter ‘g’ in this word rhymes with the letter ‘g’ in the word “garden”)
a guardian (L) taking care of the little girl
a person (not a security guard) who watches over (guards), protects and defends another person, place or system, or takes responsibility of the welfare/well-being of a person, place or system, etc.;
a person, usually not the real parents, who has taken or will take the responsibility, legally or morally, of a child’s welfare/well-being in the absence of the child’s parents, especially after the death of the child’s real parents;
any person who takes on the responsibility of keeping (guarding) a social, cultural, moral or traditional activity or custom from being neglected or misused,
a reluctant guardian with two wards
As he was away on foreign trips most of the time, Mr Person appointed his cousin as the guardian for his minor children.
When his friend died in an accident, Tom acted as a guardian for his friend’s wife and children and sorted out all the legal matters of his estate, and gave a comfortable life to the widow and her children.
When children are left to fend for themselves after the demise of their parents, their relatives may request the court of law to appoint a legal guardian to look after the welfare of the children, especially when the children are heirs to a large estate or other large source of income.
Mrs Rosemary and her friends who call themselves ‘the guardians of morality’ take upon themselves the responsibility of keeping the public morality in their community from deteriorating by giving weekly lectures about social responsibilities and the importance of instilling morals in children’s minds from a young age.
(The Guardian newspaper)
Note 2: ‘A guardian angel‘ (next entry) is an imaginary spirit, sent from god, believed to be with a person guarding and guiding in stressful times, e.g. “Mason believes that since his birth he has been looked after by his guardian angel in the form of his uncles, aunts, friends and teachers at school.” For an interesting article about ‘guardian angels’, please click here.
Note 3: For an ad about ‘Guardian Antivirus 10’, a computer software program that shows us how this word is used in computer field, please click here.
