To ward off is to keep something harmful away. Ward off a cold, ward off the blow, ward off evil spirits.
It belongs to illness, blows and superstition alike, and much of the folklore of charms is about warding off. The ward in it is the old verb meaning to guard, which survives in warden and in ward.
1phraseward offTo keep something harmful away.
“She drank hot lemon and honey to ward off a cold.”
ward off is a repelling.
From the old verb ward, to guard, with cognates across the Germanic languages.
Cognate with German aufwarten, Middle High German ūfwarten, lb ofwaarden.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Phrasal Verbs