Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Showing or practicing caution; careful.
- adjective Tentative or restrained; guarded.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Possessing or exhibiting caution; attentive to probable effects and consequences of actions with a view to avoid danger or misfortune; prudent; circumspect; wary; watchful: as, a cautious general; a cautious advance.
- With of before the object of caution: wary in regard to the risks of; afraid or heedful of the dangers involved in.
- Over-prudent; timorous; timid.
- Synonyms Prudent, careful, wary, vigilant, heedful, thoughtful, scrupulous.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Attentive to examine probable effects and consequences of acts with a view to avoid danger or misfortune; prudent; circumspect; wary; watchful.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
careful ; using or exercisingcaution ;tentative
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective avoiding excess
- adjective showing careful forethought
- noun people who are fearful and cautious
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Henry watched amazed as Burgess checked that no one else could see them, his expression cautious and watchful.
The Master Colm Tóibín 2004
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A shrink had once told him to use the word cautious because of the negative connotations associated with the word paranoid, but Rapp had only laughed.
The Third Option Vince Flynn 2000
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A shrink had once told him to use the word cautious because of the negative connotations associated with the word paranoid, but Rapp had only laughed.
Vince Flynn Collectors’ Edition #1 Vince Flynn 1997
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We use the term cautious optimism to account for the mix of factors that each of our customers is weighing slightly differently.
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We use the term cautious optimism to account for the mix of factors that each of our customers is weighing slightly differently.
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We use the term cautious optimism to account for the mix of factors that each of our customers is weighing slightly differently.
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We use the term cautious optimism to account for the mix of factors that each of our customers is weighing slightly differently.
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MCINTYRE: General Richards 'assessment for the future is peppered with a lot of what he calls cautious optimism.
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There continues to be what I call a cautious view moving forward and you've heard us talk about the bunker mentality.
unknown title 2011
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Campaign 2000 refers to what it calls "cautious optimism" in describing some provincial efforts to tackle child and family poverty.
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