warning
/ˈwɔːnɪŋ
/noun
1A statement or event that warns of something or that serves as a cautionary example: police issued a warning about fake £20 notes his sad death should be a warning to everyone [as modifier]: a red warning light...
- It is also unclear if warnings or cautions were picked up as well as convictions.
- Police in the area have issued several warnings fearful that somebody will eventually be hurt.
- Experts will also be on hand to explain how the Agency forecasts floods and how its warnings are issued.
Synonyms
example, deterrent, lesson, caution, exemplar, message, moral
admonition, caution, remonstrance, injunction, reprimand, censure, caveat
informal dressing-down, talking-to, ticking off, telling-off
British informal carpeting
1.1 [mass noun] Cautionary advice: a word of warning—don’t park illegally...
- Yet all the words of warning and cautionary tales cannot dent his ambition to do something out of the ordinary.
- Anyone with information or queries regarding this warning should contact our advice line on 0845 600 1352.
- Although by definition a caveat is a caution or warning that the notifier be given a hearing, yet it usually helps stall rather than alter a situation.
Synonyms
caution, piece of advice, notification, information;
exhortation, injunction, a (warning) shot across the bows;
advice, counselling
informal a word to the wise
1.2 [mass noun] Advance notice of something: she had only had four days' warning before leaving Berlin without any warning, the army opened fire...
- They recommend that a link should be provided to the Environment Agency's flood warning system to give residents advance warning in future.
- I've given my flatmates advance warning - I'll be a bit sad to give up this flat as it's the best one I've had and has really felt like home for almost a year now.
- Contestants are being given plenty of advance warning to get out their drawing boards, their hammers and barrels and get working on their master pieces.
Synonyms
notice, advance notice, a word of warning, forewarning, alert;
hint, signal, sign, alarm bells
informal a tip-off
Derivatives
warningly
- And every day, from around 11 a.m. to sunset, she would stand guard outside that hole, rearing up warningly if you approached close.
- I shifted warningly and he shifted persistently.
- The architecture of Firoz Shah is stern, utilitarian, almost tragic - at times hauntingly lovely, at times warningly forbidding.
Origin
Old English war(e)nung (see warn, -ing1).