Distinguished or marked by caution; heedful, wary, careful, circumspect: said of persons, their conduct, and acts. (In quot. 1633 perh. ‘Fearful, over-prudent, timorous.’)
1633. Massinger, Guardian, II. iv. in Wks. 1761, IV. 37 (W.). You shall be Receive’d at a Postern Door, if you be not cautious, By one whose Touch would make old Nestor young.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., 52. Where deep and enquiring spirits differ, I judge I have reason to be cautious, and to suspect uncertainty.
1671. Milton, Samson, 757. With more cautious and instructed skill.
1718. Free-thinker, No. 20. 137. Our old cautious English Proverb allows us to Trust every Man so far as we can see Him.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, III. 18. Urging on their way with cautious speed.
1833–48. H. Coleridge, N. Worthies (1852), I. 9. He seems to have been a much more cautious man.
1842. H. Rogers, Introd. Burke’s Works, 1842, I. 22. Further than a cautious policy would warrant.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 67. Patient and cautious interrogation of experience.
b. Const. of (obs.), how, lest, to with inf. (Cautious to was formerly used where cautious not to is now in use: cf. CAREFUL.)
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 59. By Night he fled, and at Midnight return’d From compassing the Earth, cautious of day.
1709. Hearne, Collect. (1886), II. 241. The late Opposition … has made me cautious how I enter upon new Experiments.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 207. Cautious to let the gushing grief appear, His purple garment veil’d the falling tear.
1752. Johnson, Rambl., No. 208, ¶ 9. Cautious lest this offence should be … committed.
1772. Hist. Rochester, 28. Cautious not to exceed it.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 71. I was very cautious of touching upon what had happened that morning.
1820. Hoyle’s Games Impr., 5–6. Be cautious how you trump out.
1821. J. Q. Adams, in C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. (1871), 119. The act … is cautious not to tie them down to too close a measure.
