warn

present singular third person warns · participle present warning · participle past warned · past warned

1. To make (someone) aware of (something impending); especially:
   1. transitiveTo make (someone) aware of impending danger, evil, etc.First known use 11th c.

      I phoned to warn him of the road closure.

      1 more example

      We waved a flag to warn the oncoming traffic about the accident.

      Synonyms: foretoken

   2. transitiveTo notify or inform (someone, about something).First known use at least the 13th c.

      I warned him he'd be getting a huge box of birthday presents from me.

   3. transitiveTo summon (someone) to or inform of a formal meeting or duty.

      The sheriff warned her to appear in court.

      3 more examples

      Committee being warned these following were absent or short …

      1741–2 March 4, Books of Keelman's Hospital, Newcastle, quoted in Northumberland Words (1894)

      The people had been invited to the funeral, or warnt, by a special messenger a few days before the funeral took place.

      1874, Walter Gregor, An Echo of the Olden Time from the North of Scotland, page 142

      [...] the plaintiff fraudulently warned the meeting for November 15, giving only five days' notice [...]

      1889, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the [State of] Vermont, page 490

   4. ambitransitiveobsoletepossiblytransitiveTo make a sound (e.g. clicking or whirring) indicating that it is about to strike or chime (an hour).

      Hark! the clock is warning ten;

      1885, Walter Towers, Poems, Songs, and Ballads, page 189

      2 more examples

      No, not a word more, Andrew; the clock has warned for nine, and I am off.

      1885, Emma Marshall, In the East Country with Sir Thomas Browne, page 106

      The clock warned, and the hands pointed to a few minutes before the hour. The preacher looked towards it. "And, as you sit here," he cried," the Old Year is dragging out its last moments and the New Year is coming up —"

      1902, Violet Jacob, The Sheep-Stealers, page 399

2. transitiveTo caution or admonish (someone) against unwise or unacceptable behaviour.First known use 11th c.

   He was warned against crossing the railway tracks at night.

   1 more example

   Don't let me catch you running in the corridor again, I warn you.

3. "away"; and similar words; "away"; and similar wordsTo advise or order to go or stay away.

   A sign warns trespassers off/away from the site.

4. intransitiveTo give warning.

   She is his deepest innocence in spaces of bough and hay before wishes were given a different name to warn that they might not come true [...].

   1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, Penguin, published 1995, page 177

   3 more examples

   then Iames Cephas and Iohn [...] agreed with vs that we shuld preache amonge the Hethen and they amonge the Iewes: warnynge only that we shulde remember the poore.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Galatians :[9-10]

   She warned that he was seriously thinking of withdrawing his offer to part the waters, ‘so that all you'll get at the Arabian Sea is a saltwater bath [...]’.

   1988, Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses, Picador, published 2000, page 496

   Every country has its resident experts who warn that imported television will destroy the national consciousness and replace it with Dallas, The Waltons, Star Trek and Twin Peaks.

   1991, Clive James, “Making Programmes the World Wants”, in The Dreaming Swimmer, Jonathan Cape, published 1992

plural Warns

1. A surname.

1. USabbreviationacronymgovernmentAcronym of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988.