Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
take heed en · VERB
Pronunciation
Meanings
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(idiomatic, intransitive) To pay attention.
Pro. Then, as my gueſt, and thine owne acquiſition / Worthily purchas’d, take my daughter: But / If thou do’ſt breake her Virgin-knot, before / All ſanctimonious ceremonies may / With full and holy right, be miniſtred, / No ſweet aſperſion ſhall the heauens let fall / To make this contract grow; but barraine hate, / Sower-ey’d diſdaine, and diſcord ſhall beſtrew / The vnion of your bed, with weedes ſo loathly / That you ſhall hate it both: Therefore take heede, / As Hymens Lamps ſhall light you.
1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 14, column 1:[I] sayd, I will take heede to my waies, that I ſinne not with my tongue: I will keepe my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 39:1:Any incoming chair of the GBR board should take heed of Reid's experience.
2026 August 19, Richard Wilcock, “Structure and power in the times of GBR”, in RAIL, number 1068, page 21:So there men dream awake, some taking heed, / And others not, how much untruth they tell; / Yet have the first more shame and more misdeed.
1854, Dante [Alighieri], “Canto XXIX”, in C[harles] B[agot] Cayley, transl., Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Paradise: Translated in the Original Ternary Rhyme, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 217, lines 82–84:Take heed vnto thy ſelfe, and vnto the doctrine: continue in them: for in doing this, thou ſhalt both ſaue thy ſelfe, and them that heare thee.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 4:16:But since I love some of you, I urge you again to take heed of my warning.
None, however, took heed to his brothers; wherefore jealousy and envy entered their hearts, for all he entreated them tenderly as one tenders an ophthalmic eye; but the more he cherished them, the more they redoubled in hatred and envy of him: […]
1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Abdullah bin Fazil and his Brothers. [Night 987.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume IX, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 342:The king spoke and the lords took heed.
Forms
Synonyms
pay heed · heed · give heed · listen