CAUTIONARY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Cautionary

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adjective

Cautionary adj.

Conveying a caution, or warning to avoid danger; as, cautionary signals.

Given as a pledge or as security. "He hated Barnevelt, for his getting the cautionary towns out of his hands."

Wary; cautious. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Cautionary'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cautionary" Quotes from Famous Books

... to amuse the English with the treaty till the Armada was ready, and, in evident consciousness that the enterprise would be harder than Philip imagined, he even gave it as his own opinion still (notwithstanding Cadiz), that if Elizabeth would surrender the cautionary towns in Flanders to Spain, and would grant the English Catholics a fair degree of liberty, it would be Philip's interest to make peace at once without stipulating for further terms. He could make a new war if he wished at a future time, ...

— English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century - Lectures Delivered at Oxford Easter Terms 1893-4 • James Anthony Froude

... you put in those cautionary words? They must not sell [always] as dear, nor buy [always] as cheap as they can: doe you not thereby intimate that a ...

— The Life and Death of Mr. Badman • John Bunyan

... impending, these circumstances created in London a feeling that perhaps the time was propitious for negotiating with France, where too there was considerable agitation for peace. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1796, Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris under rigid cautionary instructions. The envoy was cold and haughty; Delacroix, the French minister, was conceited and shallow. It soon appeared that what the agent had to offer was either so indefinite as to be meaningless, ...

— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. I. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... moment to his former refuge, he observed a cautionary movement of her eyes towards the door. Stepping back, he put his hand upon the lock. But he had not spoken out of his own will and desire; and he felt it in his heart a noble return for his late injurious treatment to be ...

— Hard Times • Charles Dickens*

... home-folks; that he would doubtless tell every Tom, Dick and Harry in town how he had met me, and where. What I was asking myself as he burbled on about Peggy Haskins was whether I might dare give him the one cautionary word which would reveal the true state of affairs. In the end I decided that it would be most imprudent, not to say disastrous. He would have sympathized with me instantly and heartily, but the knowledge would have been as ...

— Branded • Francis Lynde

... Patrolman Louis Whedbee left the Zip Cab station. With arch supports squeaking and night stick swinging, Whedbee walked east to the call box at the corner of Sullivan and Cherokee. The traffic signal suspended above the intersection blinked a cautionary amber. Not a car ...

— Stopover Planet • Robert E. Gilbert

... recruiting the garrison of the cautionary town of Flushing, from which troops had recently been withdrawn for service on the high seas, compelled the queen to apply again to the City (July, 1596) for a ...

— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe

Words linked to "Cautionary" : monitory, warning, protective, prophylactic, dissuasive