precautionaryadj.n.

1647 M. Hudson Divine Right of Govt. Ep. Ded. sig. (a)1 Whatsoever is spoken in the former book of this Treatise..was but intended for an Introduction to facilitate the true understanding of those precautionary Muniments against these two sacrilegious Intrusions.

1698 E. Settle Farther Def. Dramatick Poetry 16 Here were the Learned in the Law called to the Consult, a preliminary Inspection into Records, the Terra Firma Foundation Examined, and all the precautionary Articles of Treaty adjusted.

1705 tr. T. Boccalino Advices from Parnassus ii. xxiii. 374 Precautionary Purgations work not those good Effects which the Physician believes, and the Patient stands in need of.

1786 Daily Universal Reg. 7 Aug. 2/2 Had they been attended to, precautionary steps would probably have been taken in order to prevent what has happened.

1848 R. I. Wilberforce Doctr. Incarnation (1852) v. 125 A precautionary guard against what was afterwards the Arian heresy.

1880 F. Marryat Fair-haired Alda II. ix. 159 My measures were only precautionary.

1932 Flight 8 July 619 A hurried forced landing, as distinct from a more leisurely precautionary landing on a selected site.

1991 J. Phillips You'll never eat Lunch in this Town Again 296 I am on my way to the bathroom for a precautionary whiz for the drive home when the phone rings.

1648 W. Montagu Miscellanea Spiritualia i. Pref. Addr. sig. b2^v This confession, as it may prove precautionary to others, may pass for the most likely part of my satisfaction.

1716 M. Davies Crit. Hist. 51 in Athenæ Britannicæ III And disperse once more from another Babel of one another's Catchpoling Watch-words without any precautionary Ward-words.

1757 Herald No. 6 (1758) 1 89 Had the planners of the scheme no precautionary forecast?

1820 J. A. Corry Eng. Metrop. 103 You are startled at my first precautionary hint.

1866 ‘G. Eliot’ Felix Holt II. xxv. 153 Jermyn's precautionary statement that he was pursuing inquiries.

1930 W. Faulkner As I lay Dying 74 It is light, yet they move slowly; empty, yet they carry it carefully; lifeless, yet they move with hushed precautionary words to one another.

2005 Independent (Nexis) 24 June 12 The National Society for Clean Air..added another precautionary note.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa IV. i. 8 Thou seest, Belford, by the above precautionaries, that I forget nothing.

1922 tr. E. Nord in Inq. Occup. & Admin. Haiti & Santo Domingo (Hearings Sel. Comm. Haiti & Santo Domingo 67th Congr. U.S. Senate) II. 1765 This done, Mr. Gagnier, notary,..told this one that he had to take some precautionaries in this affair, for this matter can go as far as Port au Prince.

1953 Jrnl. Helicopter Assoc. Great Brit. July 21 I would like to point out that these landings should not be considered as precautionaries, they were forced landings in the true sense of the word.

1992 G. Talese Unto Sons xxxiii. 413 Although his firm still supplied drugstores around the country..the six-foot-four-inch pharmacist and physician was now dispensing antidotes and precautionaries primarily for the betterment of buildings, utilities, and machines.

1982 University of Chicago Law Rev. Spring 369 The precautionary principle was meant to serve the ‘interest of industry’; its aim was ‘to avoid later having to forbid the construction of new industrial undertakings’ because of the existing burden of pollution.

1988 Financial Times 18 July (Survey section) p.i/8 It [sc. Greenpeace] is keeping an eye on the British Government to make sure that there is no backsliding from its undertaking to adopt the precautionary principle.

2003 New Internationalist Jan. 15/3 The Cartagena Protocol says the precautionary principle should be used, and that therefore genetically engineered maize is to be considered risky unless it has been proven not to be so.

1766 ‘C. Tell-truth’ Entertainer I. 195 Those only continue happy, who are so precautionarily prudent as to lay in early a stock for true permanent satisfaction.

1895 Evening News (Lincoln, Nebraska) 22 Nov. 5/1 [He] hit him..with a beer bottle that had been precautionarily, so to remark, emptied.

1969 Flying Nov. 54/2 Mr. Bassie's beautiful allmetal, retractable-tricycle Thorp T-18 (precautionarily limited, at the moment, to cruise at 170 mph IAS) filled us with delight.

2009 D. J. Die in K. L. Cochrane & S. M. Garcia Fishery Manager's Guidebk. (ed. 2) xvi. 443 Harvest limits can be precautionarily reduced below purely single-stock reference points.