From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishward something ↔ off phrasal verbPREVENTto do something to try to protect yourself from something bad, such as illness, danger, or attack Don’t forget insect repellent to ward off the mosquitoes. a spell to ward off evil spirits → ward→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
ward off• The attacker moves in with a roundhouse kick to the head and the defender raises his arm to ward it off.• This she does not permit; now she knows how to ward him off.• None the less to ward them off, lanterns are hung near the surface where the sharks thrash about.• The safe procedure to ward it off, or so we gathered, was a homeopathic dose of torture.• I hear noise at the ward door, off up the hall out of my sight. 