DictionaryAI

warn

verb
WORN/wɔɹn/UKWAWN/wɔːn/

Formswarns, warning, warned

7 meanings of warn

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To make someone aware of approaching danger, harm, or trouble.

    The lifeguard warned the swimmers about the strong current.

    I warn you that the road ahead is icy and unmarked.

    Similaralert, caution, advise, notify

    Note

    The core sense, and the closest to the word's roots: Old English warnian meant "to take heed," from an Indo-European root for being aware. To warn someone was first to make them heedful. The person comes directly after the verb, and the danger follows with of or about: warn drivers of ice, warn him about the closure. Both prepositions are idiomatic here.

  2. 2
    verbtransitive
    To caution or sternly advise someone against unwise or unacceptable behavior.

    The referee warned the player for the dangerous tackle.

    Officials warn drivers against using their phones at the wheel.

    Similarcaution, admonish, advise, reprimand

    Note

    Unlike the danger sense, the risk here lies in the listener's own conduct. The usual pattern is warn someone against doing something: warned against crossing the tracks at night. Tacked onto a threat, "I warn you" turns the verb into a reprimand with consequences implied: don't let me catch you running in the corridor again, I warn you.

  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To notify or inform someone about something, usually in advance.

    The manager warned staff that the system would go offline overnight.

    They warn customers about likely delivery delays during the holidays.

    Similarnotify, inform, advise, tell, alert

    Note

    Here the danger has drained away and only the advance notice remains. You can warn a friend that a huge box of birthday presents is on its way, and the word suggests a cheerful "get ready" rather than alarm. That lingering sense of something coming is what sets it apart from plain inform, and it is the thread back to the danger sense.

  4. 4
    verbintransitive
    To give a warning about a coming danger or problem.

    The sirens warned of the approaching tornado.

    Signs along the cliff warn of falling rocks.

    Note

    With no listener named, the verb announces the danger to whoever hears it, usually through a that-clause: in Clive James's The Dreaming Swimmer (1991), experts warn that imported television will destroy the national consciousness. Rushdie and Pynchon use the same shape, and Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 already has "warnynge only that we shulde remember the poore." Warn of is the other common pattern.

  5. 5
    verbtransitive
    To advise or order someone to go away or to stay away.

    The rancher warned trespassers off his property.

    Signs warn hikers away from the unstable ledge.

    Note

    The direction comes from a particle: warn trespassers off, warn hikers away, often with from and a place to follow. Off can also take the place directly, as in a sign that warns trespassers off the site. Without off or away, the verb drifts back toward ordinary cautioning, so the particle carries much of the meaning.

  6. 6
    verbtransitive
    To summon someone to a formal meeting or duty, or to notify them of one.

    The clerk warned the jurors to attend the hearing on Monday.

    Parish officers warn residents to serve on the council.

    Similarsummon, call

    Note

    An old administrative use in which warning someone means calling them to attend. It appears in the 1741 books of Newcastle's Keelman's Hospital, in Walter Gregor's An Echo of the Olden Time from the North of Scotland (1874), where mourners are "warnt" to a funeral, and in Vermont court reports of 1889. The object can be the people or the meeting itself: a plaintiff "warned the meeting for November 15."

Less common meaning

  1. 7
    verbobsoletetransitive or intransitive
    Of a clock, to make a sound such as clicking or whirring to signal that it is about to strike or chime the hour.

    The great hall clock warned midnight with a soft whirring before the bell.

    Hark! the clock is warning ten;
    1885, Walter Towers, Poems
    Note

    Clocks did their own warning in late Victorian and Edwardian prose, and the use is probably obsolete now. Walter Towers writes "the clock is warning ten," Emma Marshall "the clock has warned for nine," and in Violet Jacob's The Sheep-Stealers (1902) the clock simply warns. The hour can be the object, follow for, or drop out entirely. Today it suits period writing only.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English warnen ("to warn; admonish"), from Old English warnian ("to take heed; warn"), from Proto-Germanic *warnōną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wer- ("to be aware; give heed"). It is cognate with German warnen, Swedish varna, and Icelandic varna.