1. a defender, protector, or keeper: "self-appointed guardians of public morality"
▪ a person who looks after and is legally responsible for someone who is unable to manage their own affairs, especially an incompetent or disabled person or a child whose parents have died.
▪ the superior of a Franciscan convent.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French garden, of Germanic origin; compare with ward and warden. The ending was altered by association with -ian.
