Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not alert to danger, problems, or deception.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not wary; not vigilant against danger; not cautious; unguarded; precipitate; heedless; careless.
- Unexpected.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not vigilant against danger; not wary or cautious; unguarded; precipitate; heedless; careless.
- adjective obsolete Unexpected; unforeseen; unware.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Lacking caution as a result ofnaïveté orinexperience - adjective
Unprepared ; notwatchful
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective not alert to danger or deception
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Another trap for the unwary is the preparation of the land.
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As the unwary are allured by the "well-favored harlot's" looks, so Israel,
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"That was their last word on it, so these letters just look like a sort of trap for the unwary, which is not fair," said Ofer Lion, a lawyer who has written about the issue.
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The most dangerous trap for the unwary is the regulation on self-dealing - a legal principle that prevents I.R.A. owners from making investments that benefit themselves or certain family members, even indirectly.
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"Should he return to me," she thought in those paroxysms of delusion, "I would to _him_ unbosom all my guilt; and as a remote, a kind of unwary accomplice in my crime, his sense, his arguments, ever ready in making light of my sins, might afford a respite to my troubled conscience."
Nature and Art Mrs. Inchbald 1787
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Still, no one knows what free will come to mean in forty years, when speakers of languages other than English may free this very old word from its current hell of being used predominantly to describe goods and services to be had or so hope the naïve and unwary at no cost.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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Still, no one knows what free will come to mean in forty years, when speakers of languages other than English may free this very old word from its current hell of being used predominantly to describe goods and services to be had or so hope the naïve and unwary at no cost.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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And the shafts await feet heavier than a rabbit to swallow the unwary whole.
Acceptance Gill Hoffs 2011
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And even that most notorious technique of postmodernism, self-reflexivity, is really as much a way of poking fun at the pretentions of fiction writers, their claims to adequately represent the world of experience in a direct and unmediated way, as it is to frustrate the expectations of unwary readers.
Postmodernism 2010
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Textbooks rewritten in Texas of all places so the story can be set for the optimal effects of revisions to confuse the unwary who believe.
Democrats slam GOP as party of 'fear' in health care debate 2009
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