Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Toward
1.
Approaching; coming near.
“His toward peril.” Spenser.
2.
Readly to do or learn; compliant with duty; not froward; apt; docile; tractable;
as, a
. toward
youth3.
Ready to act; forward; bold; valiant.
Why, that is spoken like a
toward
prince. Shakespeare
Webster 1828 Edition
Toward
TO'WARD
Definition 2024
toward
toward
English
Preposition
toward (chiefly US)
- In the direction of.
- She moved toward the door.
- Bible, Numbers xxiv. 1
- He set his face toward the wilderness.
- 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter III:
- Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
- In relation to (someone or something).
- What are your feelings toward him?
- Bible, Deuteronomy
- His eye shall be evil toward his brother.
- For the purpose of attaining (an aim).
- I'm saving money toward retirement.
- Located close to; near (a time or place).
- Our place is over toward the station.
- Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
- I am toward nine years older since I left you.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Usage notes
- Although some have tried to discern a semantic distinction between the words toward and towards, the difference is merely dialectal. Toward is more common in American English and towards is more common in British English.
Translations
in the direction of
|
|
in relation to
for the purpose of
located near
Adjective
toward (not comparable)
- (obsolete) Future; to come.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iv:
- ere that wished day his beame disclosd, / He either enuying my toward good, / Or of himselfe to treason ill disposd / One day vnto me came in friendly mood [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.iv:
- (dated) Approaching, coming near; impending; present, at hand.
- Shakespeare
- Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
- 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. XV, Practical — Devotional
- On the morrow […] our Lord Abbot orders the Cellerarius to send off his carpenters to demolish the said structure brevi manu, and lay up the wood in safe keeping. Old Dean Herbert, hearing what was toward, comes tottering along hither, to plead humbly for himself and his mill.
- Shakespeare
- Yielding, pliant; docile; ready or apt to learn; not froward.
- (obsolete or archaic) Promising, likely; froward.
- Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. ― Shakespeare.