All 7 Uses of
wary
in
A Prayer for Owen Meany
- My mother, in turn, was wary—at first, she feared for her clothes.†
p. 99.7wary = careful, nervous, or distrustful
- Was Dan wary of her?†
p. 110.7
- He never seemed wary.†
p. 110.7
- Whereas the Rev. Mr. Merrill had heeded his calling as a young man—he had always been in, and of, the church—the Rev. Mr. Wiggin was a former airline pilot; some difficulty with his eyesight had forced his early retirement from the skies, and he had descended to our wary town with a newfound fervor—the zeal of the convert giving him the healthy but frantic appearance of one of those "elder" citizens who persist in entering vigorous sporting competitions in the over-fifty category.†
p. 113.9
- The tallish boy, the notorious cemetery vandal, sprawled his legs into the center aisle, indifferently creating a hazard for the elderly, the infirm, and the unwary.†
p. 240.8 *unwary = not careful about possible danger or deceptionstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unwary means not and reverses the meaning of wary. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Her wariness matured her; she had always known how to dress—I think it ran in the family.†
p. 297.7wariness = caution or distrust
- "Yes, about four years—that's correct," Dan said warily.†
p. 560.3warily = in a nervous or distrustful manner
Definition:
careful or nervous about something