heedful
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of heedful
Explanation
Being heedful means paying careful attention to something (or someone). You'll want to be especially heedful of your best friend's feelings if he's having a bad week. If you're heedful, you're mindful or attentive. You should be heedful of drinking plenty of water when you work outside on a hot summer day, and heedful of the crumbling stone steps if you're exploring the ruins of an old building. It's also important to be heedful of the way other people feel. This adjective comes from heed, "careful attention," and its Old English root hedan, "observe or protect."
Vocabulary lists containing heedful
The Odyssey
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All's Well That Ends Well
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The Comedy of Errors
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A more heedful scientist might have surveyed the Chinese data and begun preparations for tests of his own.
From New York Times ● May 12, 2020
McMillan initially promised to train fissile material handlers to be more heedful of plutonium-handling perils, for example, and to bring the inventory and safety documents guiding their work up to date.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 30, 2017
Her 16th birthday is the occasion for an Edwardian tennis match – lots of chaps swanning about in white flannels and boaters – through which she skitters barefoot, heedful only of her secret romance.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 16, 2012
And the military, despite its intermittently heavy-handed responses, is heedful of public sentiment to a degree unprecedented under the old regime.
From Time ● Jun. 2, 2011
To Mrs. Lee the girl was more humble and heedful than ever; to us she was abrupt.
From Wives and Widows; or The Broken Life by Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
