warison

W4A1R1I1S1O1N1
UK/ˈwɒɹɪsən/UK/ˈwɒɹɪzən/US/ˈwɔɹəsən/US/ˈwɔɹəzən/

noun

A war cry played to order the soldiers to attack (normally played on a bugle).

OriginMiddle Scots warisoun ← Middle English warisoun ← Old Northern French warison →
Scrabble 10
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Meanings

nounwarison (plural warisons)

plural warisons · alternative warrison

  1. obsoleteA war cry played to order the soldiers to attack (normally played on a bugle).

    Then since a lone and widowed Dame / These restless riders may not tame, / Either receive within thy towers / Two hundred of my master’s powers, / Or straight they sound their warison§, / And storm and spoil thy garrison; […]

    1805, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza XXI, page 112

Origin

  1. Old Northern Frenchwarison
  2. Middle Englishwarisoun“reward, punishment”
  3. Middle Scotswarisoun
  4. Englishwarison

Borrowed from Middle Scots warisoun, from Middle English warisoun (“reward, punishment”), from Old Northern French warison, variant garison, guarison. Doublet of garrison. The change in sense from "reward" to "bugle call" arose from Walter Scott's apparent misinterpretation of a line in the Middle English text The Battle of Otterburn, equivalent to modern English "Minstrels, play up for your warison".

More words from Middle Scots, Middle English, Old Northern French

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Sariwon
Cite this entry
APA

warison. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/warison

MLA

“warison.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/warison. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “warison,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/warison.

Source: warison on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.