regard

Etymology 1

From Middle English regard, regarde, reguard, from Anglo-Norman reguard, from regarder, reguarder. Attested in Middle English starting around the mid 14th century. Compare guard, reward, guardian, and so on.

noun

1. (countable) A steady look, a gaze.
   He bathed in the memory of her blondness, of her warm blue regard, and the sentiment permeated his sensibility with tenderness made the more rich because its object was someone long since dead. 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 750
2. One's concern for another; esteem; relation, reference.
3. (preceded by “in” or “with”) A particular aspect or detail; respect, sense.
   This attempt will be made with every regard to the difficulty of the undertaking […] 1842, Treuttel and Würtz, The Foreign Quarterly Review, page 144
   We are spending a lot of money trying to put this mine in shape; we are anxious to comply with the wishes of your office in every regard […] 1903, Kentucky Mines, Minerals Dept, Annual Report, page 186
   These problems were not traditional problems with realistic stimuli, but rather were realistic in every regard. 1989, Leonard W. Poon, David C. Rubin, Barbara A. Wilson, Everyday Cognition in Adulthood and Late Life, Cambridge University Press, page 399
4. (uncountable) The worth or estimation in which something or someone is held.
   He is held in great regard in Whitehall.

Etymology 2

From Middle English regarden, from Old French regarder, reguarder. First attested in late Middle English, circa the early 15th century.

verb

1. To look at; to observe.
   She regarded us warily.
2. (transitive) To consider, look upon (something) in a given way etc.
   I always regarded tabloid journalism as a social evil.
   He regards honesty as a duty.
   I regard such a way of life with distate.
   Signior Leonato, truth it is good Signior, / Your neece regards me with an eye of fauour. , [Act V, scene iv]
   His associates seem to have regarded him with kindness, which, in spite of their admiration of his writings, was not unmixed with contempt. 1857, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in Biographical and Historical Sketches, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 49
   For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places. May 5, 2012, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport
3. (transitive, archaic) To take notice of, pay attention to.
   I should not, however, so much mind if this folly [of giving children poetic names] were comprised in that domain of cold gentility, to which affectation usually confines itself. One does not regard seeing Miss Arabella seated at the piano, or her little sister Leonora tottling across the carpet to show her new pink shoes. That is in the usual course of events. 1870, Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery
4. (transitive) To face toward.
   Seated on a peninſula which regardeth the maine land ; ſtrong by nature, and fortified by Art : adorned heretofore with magnificent buildings ; and numbered amongſt the paradiſes of the earth, for temperate aire, and delightfull ſituation. 1615, George Sandys, A Relation of a Iourney begun An. Dom. 1610, London: Andrew Crooke, published 1637, page 16
   We pass’d by[…]that exceedingly beautifull scate of my Lord Pembroke, on yᵉ ascent of an hill, flank’d with wood, and reguarding the river ; and so at night to Cadenham, yᵉ mansion of Ed. Hungerford, Esq. 1654-06-09, John Evelyn, edited by William Bray, Memoirs, new edition, London: Henry Colburn, published 1827, pages 70–1
5. (transitive) To have to do with, to concern.
   That argument does not regard the question.
   My lords, the question thus proposed by your lordships to the Judges must be admitted by all persons to be a question of great importance, as it regards the administration of justice. 1821, edited by Curson Hansard, The parliamentary debates, Volume 3, page 809
6. (transitive, obsolete) To set store by (something), to hold (someone) in esteem; to consider to have value, to respect.