[f. prec. sb.]
† 1. trans. a. To enter a caveat or caution against. b. To serve with a caveat. Obs.
1661. Mrq. Argyle, Last Sp., 27 May, in Naphtali, 288. I would caveat this.
1707. Col. Rec. Penn., II. 347. Charged or Caveated the Mr. of the Rolls that he should make out no Exemplification or Coppy thereof.
2. intr. To enter a caveat.
In mod. Dicts.
3. Fencing. (intr.) To shift one’s sword from one side to the other of one’s adversary’s sword, to ‘disengage.’ Hence Caveating vbl. sb.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 274. In case the adversary after a finda, going to the parade, discover his breast to caveat.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Caveating, or Disengaging, slipping the Adversary’s Sword, when ’tis going to bind or secure one’s own.
1707. Sir W. Hope, New Method Fencing, 82. This Contre-Caveating … is a Circular Parade, that is, a Man in performing it, forms with his Sword not only one, but sometimes (according as his Adversary shall Caveat or shun it) two or three Circles.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Caveating is so necessary a motion in fencing, that without it, there could be scarce any offensive part.
