Adjacent Words

Wary definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

WARY, a. [See Ware and Warn.] Cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, artifices and dangers; scrupulous; timorously prudent. Old men are usually more wary than the young. It is incumbent on a general in war to be always wary.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: marked by keen caution and watchful prudence; "they were wary in their movements"; "a wary glance at the black clouds"; "taught to be wary of strangers" [ant: unwary]
2: openly distrustful and unwilling to confide [syn: leery, mistrustful, suspicious, untrusting, wary]

Merriam Webster's

adjective (warier; -est) Etymology: ¹ware, from Middle English war, ware, from Old English wær careful, aware, wary; akin to Old High German giwar aware, attentive, Latin vereri to fear, Greek horan to see Date: 15th century marked by keen caution, cunning, and watchfulness especially in detecting and escaping danger Synonyms: see cautious • warily adverb • wariness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (warier, wariest) 1 on one's guard; given to caution; circumspect. 2 (foll. by of) cautious, suspicious (am wary of using lifts). 3 showing or done with caution or suspicion (a wary expression). Derivatives: warily adv. wariness n. Etymology: WARE(2) + -Y(1)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Warye War"ye, v. t. [AS. wergian, wyrgean. Cf. Worry.] To curse; to curse; to execrate; to condemn; also, to vex. [Obs.] [Spelled also warrie, warry, and wary.] ``Whom I thus blame and warye.'' --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Wary Wa"ry, a. [Compar. Warier; superl. Wariest.] [OE. war, AS. w[ae]r; akin to Icel. v?rr, Dan. & Sw. var, Goth. wars, G. gewahr aware, OHG. wara notice, attention, Gr. ? to see. Cf. Aware, Garment, Garnish, Garrison, Panorama, Ward, v. t. Ware, a., Warren.] 1. Cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, artifices, and dangers; timorously or suspiciously prudent; circumspect; scrupulous; careful. ``Bear a wary eye.'' --Shak. We should be wary, therefore, what persecution we raise against the living labors of public men. --Milton. 2. Characterized by caution; guarded; careful. It behoveth our words to be wary and few. --Hooker. Syn: Cautious; circumspect; watchful. See Cautious.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(warier, wariest) If you are wary of something or someone, you are cautious because you do not know much about them and you believe they may be dangerous or cause problems. People did not teach their children to be wary of strangers... They were very wary about giving him a contract. ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ of/about n/-ing • warily She studied me warily, as if I might turn violent. ADV: usu ADV with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Cautious, heedful, careful, watchful, vigilant, circumspect, prudent, discreet, guarded, scrupulous, chary.

Moby Thesaurus

Argus-eyed, Machiavellian, Machiavellic, Pyrrhonic, Scotch, acute, agnostic, all ears, all eyes, arch, artful, astute, aux aguets, cagey, calculating, canny, careful, cautious, chary, circumspect, clever, considerate, crafty, cunning, custodial, cute, deceitful, deep, deep-laid, designing, diplomatic, discreet, disinclined to believe, disposed to doubt, distrustful, doubtful, doubting, dubious, eagle-eyed, feline, foxy, from Missouri, frugal, gingerly, guarded, guileful, hard of belief, hawk-eyed, impervious to persuasion, in doubt, inconvincible, incredulous, ingenious, insidious, inventive, keen-eyed, knowing, leery, lidless, mistrustful, mistrusting, observant, on guard, on the lookout, on the watch, open-eyed, pawky, politic, provident, prudent, questioning, ready, resourceful, safe, saving, scheming, scrupulous, serpentine, sharp, sharp-eyed, shifty, shrewd, shy, shy of belief, skeptical, sleepless, slick, slippery, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaky, sophistical, stealthy, strategic, subtile, subtle, supple, suspecting, suspicious, tactical, thrifty, trickish, tricksy, tricky, uncertain, unconvincible, uncredulous, unpersuadable, unpersuasible, untrusting, unwasteful, unwilling to accept, vigilant, vulpine, watchful, wily, with open eyes