wary

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛə.ɹi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛɚ.i/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈweːɹi/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ˈweəɹi/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwiəɹi/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈweɹɪ/, /ˈweɹe/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɜːɹɪ/
• Rhymes: -ɛəɹi
• Homophones: weary (cheer–chair merger), whirry (fair–fur merger)

From the adjective ware +‎ -y.

wary (comparative warier, superlative wariest)

1. Cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, trickery, and dangers; suspiciously prudent

   Synonyms: circumspect, scrupulous, careful

   He is wary of dogs.

2. Characterized by caution; guarded; careful; on one's guard
3. thrifty, provident

• cautious, guarded, careful, chary

• unwarily
• unwary
• warily
• wariness

From Middle English warien, from Old English wierġan (“to curse, do evil”), from Proto-West Germanic *wargijan, from Proto-Germanic *wargijaną (“to condemn, curse”), from Proto-Germanic *wargaz (“criminal”). Doublet of warry.

wary (third-person singular simple present waries, present participle warying, simple past and past participle waried)

1. (dialectal) To curse, revile.

• wargus

• weary

• “wary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Wray, awry

• IPA^(key): /ˈva.rɘ/
• Rhymes: -arɘ
• Syllabification: wa‧ry

wary m inan

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of war