Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To be on guard against; be cautious of.
  • intransitive verb To be cautious; exert caution.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be wary or cautious; be on one's guard; exercise care or vigilance: properly two words, be ware, consisting of the infinitive or imperative of be with the adjective ware: followed by of, expressed or understood, with the force of ‘against,’ ‘in regard to’: as, beware of evil associations; beware how you step; “beware the bear,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be on one's guard; to be cautious; to take care; -- commonly followed by of or lest before the thing that is to be avoided.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To have a special regard; to heed.
  • transitive verb obsolete To avoid; to take care of; to have a care for.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb defective, transitive, intransitive To use caution, pay attention (to) (if intransitive, construed with of).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be on one's guard; be cautious or wary about; be alert to

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ben war : ben, to be; see be + war, on one's guard; see ware.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

be- +‎ ware

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Examples

Comments

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  • Is beware some sort of computer program I should avoid too?

    January 5, 2009

  • Just keep aware of it.

    January 5, 2009