take heed

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

take heed (third-person singular simple present takes heed, present participle taking heed, simple past took heed, past participle taken heed)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To pay attention.

   Synonyms: give heed, pay heed

   The king spoke and the lords took heed.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 39:1:

     [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, 1 Timothy 4:16:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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: […]

Usage notes

• Used with of, or formerly to, when an object follows.