caveat
Pluralcaveats
Verbcaveats, caveating, caveated
Pluralcaveats
Formscaveats, caveating, caveated
- 1A qualification that limits a statement or arrangement, or an exception made to it.
The landlord agreed to the lower rent, with the caveat that we sign a two-year lease.
The senator backed the bill, but only with caveats: no new taxes and a five-year limit.
UsageOften with the caveat that + a condition: agreed, with the caveat that we sign.
Similarcondition, proviso, stipulation
Note
Here the caveat limits rather than warns: it is the condition attached to an agreement or a claim.
- 2A warning or cautionary remark meant to put someone on guard about something.
Before we set off, the guide issued a caveat: the river crossing becomes dangerous after heavy rain.
Investors ignored the analyst's caveats about the risks of the new fund.
UsagePeople issue, add or attach a caveat, often a caveat about a risk.
- 3To qualify a statement by attaching a caveat or proviso to it.
I should caveat these figures by saying they come from a small sample.
The spokesperson caveated every answer with a reminder that the investigation was ongoing.
UsageOften caveat something with a reminder or by saying. Some readers object to the verb, so add a caveat is safer.
Similarqualify
Note
A verb made from the noun, and one that still draws objections: Alexander Haig was widely criticized and parodied for lines like "I'll have to caveat my response."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The English verb is formed from the noun. en.wiktionary.org
- Alexander Haig was widely criticized and parodied for expressions including the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 4In law, a formal notice lodged with a court or official asking that no action be taken, such as granting probate, until the person lodging it has been heard.
Suspecting the will had been changed under pressure, the niece's lawyer lodged a caveat with the probate court.
Because the cousins had lodged a caveat, the registry could not grant probate until their objections were heard.
UsageLawyers lodge or enter a caveat, usually with a court or registry.
Note
Its effect is to put an objection on record, so that nothing is done against the objector without notice. Thomas Webster, reporting on patent law in 1849, describes a system of caveats that throws the burden of watchfulness onto the individual. The same device returns in the claim on registered land.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A legal caveat records an objection so that the relevant action cannot proceed without notifying the caveator. judiciary.hk
- Thomas Webster described the individual's responsibility for vigilance under the caveat system in evidence published in 1849. en.wiktionary.org
- Caveats also protect claims to interests in registered land. nt.gov.au
- 5In law, to lodge a formal caveat objecting to something or asking that proceedings be held until the objector is heard.
Convinced their aunt had been pressured into signing, the nephews caveated her will so probate would wait until they were heard.
Any party who wishes to caveat the application must do so within thirty days.
Note
Its object is the thing challenged: a charge, a claim, a set of accounts. In Hendry's case of 1857, reported by B. Y. Martin, a party who has entered his caveat against a guardian's return goes on to caveat a fifty-dollar charge as illegal. The verb and the phrase enter a caveat against sit side by side there, doing the same work.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- B. Y. Martin reported Hendry's case. en.wiktionary.org
- A party entered a caveat against the guardian's return. en.wiktionary.org
- The same passage uses the verb for an objection to a fifty-dollar charge alleged to be illegal. en.wiktionary.org
- 6To warn or caution against something taking place.
Note
Long out of use, it took the event to be headed off as its object: John Scott, writing in 1663, begs his reader to caveat any address being fully heard until someone could answer it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- John Scott wrote the cited passage in 1663, in a letter to Under Secretary Williamson. dokumen.pub
- Scott uses caveat with the hearing of an address as its object, asking that it await someone commissioned to confront the Dutch or their associates. dokumen.pub
- 7Under a Torrens land-title system, a formal notice lodged to show that someone claims an interest in a piece of land.
- 8Under a Torrens land-title system, to lodge a formal notice claiming an interest in a piece of land.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
A learned borrowing from Latin caveat ("may he/she/it beware"), a form of caveō ("I beware of"). It is a doublet of show: both go back to the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)kewh₁- ("to heed, look, feel, take note of").
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- Caveat is a learned borrowing from Latin caveat, meaning “may he/she/it beware”. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin caveat is a form of caveō, whose first-person singular meaning is “I beware of”. en.wiktionary.org
- Caveat and show are etymological doublets. en.wiktionary.org
- Both words ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁-, glossed “to heed, look, feel, take note of”. en.wiktionary.org