chary
Meanings
Adjective Satellite
- characterized by great caution and wariness
- "chary of the risks involved"
- "a chary investor"
Adj
- Careful, cautious, shy, wary.
- Excessively particular or fussy about details; fastidious.
- Not disposed to give freely; not lavish; frugal, sparing.
- Cared for, regarded as precious; cherished.
Adv
- Synonym of charily: carefully, cautiously, warily.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English chari, charre, charri, chary, Early Middle English cearig, chariȝ (“concerned with, diligent; sad, sorrowful; of a person: cherished, loved”), from Old English ċeariġ (“careful; pensive; chary, wary; anxious, sad, sorrowful; dire, grievous”), from Proto-West Germanic *karag (“anxious; sad”), from Proto-Germanic *karō + *-gaz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeh₂r- (“exclamation; voice”) + *-kos (suffix forming adjectives with the meaning ‘pertaining to; typical of’)); analysable as care + -y.
The English word is cognate with Danish karrig (“miserly, stingy”), Dutch karig (“austere, scant, sparing”), Norwegian karrig (“barren; meagre; poor”), Old High German charag, karag (“sparing”) (modern German karg (“barren; meagre, poor”)), Old Saxon carag, karag, Swedish karg (“austere; barren; hungry; needy, poor”). See further at care.
Synonyms
alert, attentive, cagey, cagy, cannily, canny, careful, carefully, cautelous, cautious, charily, chary, circumspect, conservative, conservatively, deliberate, discreet, discreetly, gingerly, guarded, heedful, heedy, hesitant, meticulous, mindful, prudent, prudently, reckful, safe, safely, sensible, shy, slow, tentative, tentatively, timid, timorous, warily, wary, well-advised
Antonyms
carelessly, incautiously, meticulous, uncarefully, uncautiously, unchary, unwarily
Scrabble Score: 13
chary is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordchary is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
chary is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary