pred. a. Forms: 1 ʓewær, 3 iwar, iware, iwarre, a ware, 4 y-wer, ywar, 6 awarre, 5– aware. [OE. ʓewær (cogn. with OHG. gawar, giwar, MHG. gewar, mod.G. gewahr), f. ʓe (see A- pref. 6) + wær wary, cautious: see WARE.]

1

  † 1.  Watchful, vigilant, cautious, on one’s guard. To be aware of: to be on one’s guard against. Obs.

2

1095.  O. E. Chron. Þa þe innan þam niwan castele wæron, his ʓewær wurdon.

3

c. 1200.  Moral Ode, 334. Bute we wurðen us iwar, þis wereld us wile drenchen.

4

1250.  Lay., 5520. Beyne wer iwar [1205 warre] of þan swikedome.

5

1340.  Ayenb., 100. Þet þou by wys and y-wer.

6

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apophth., 337 b. To bee well aware, lest thei should … areise battaill.

7

1636.  E. Dacres, trans. Machiavel, II. 423. They were alwayes aware of taking of townes by long sieges.

8

1770.  Wesley, Wks. (1872), XIII. 19. Are you all aware of … tale-bearing and evil-speaking?

9

1835.  I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., iv. 164. We must be especially aware of those fallacies.

10

  2.  Informed, cognizant, conscious, sensible. To be aware (of, that): to have cognizance, to know.

11

c. 1205.  Lay., 18422. Ær heo wurðen iware, we scullen heom amarre.

12

a. 1230.  Ancr. R., 104. Þer of beoð iwar … þet oðer hwile þe ueond [etc.].

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c. 1280.  Commandm., in E. E. P. (1862), 16. Be a ware whose euer wol … þat for man-is sin it is.

14

1489.  Caxton, Faytes of A., II. iii. 94. Whan the dwellers there were aware of hit.

15

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Chron. xxii. 21. Arnan loked, and was aware of Dauid.

16

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 119. Whereof hee soon aware, Each perturbation smooth’d with outward calme.

17

1790.  Cowper, Odyss., XIX. 117. Thou wast well aware … that I design’d To ask.

18

1848.  W. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., xv. (1879), 317. The only Europeans who had preceded us … so far as I am aware, were Straus … and Bonar.

19

Mod.  Are you aware that your friends are here?

20

  † 3.  elliptically with be omitted, and simulating a verb in the imperative. (So taken by Johnson.) (Be) on your guard, (be)ware. (Cf. Soft! Quick!)

21

c. 1530.  Hickscorner, in Hazl., Dodsl., I. 154. Aware, fellows, and stand a-room.

22

1575.  Laneham, Lett. (1871), 28. Aware, keep bak, make room noow.

23

c. 1590.  Marlowe, Faust., vii. 81. Well there’s the second time. Aware the third.

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