Obs. or arch. Forms: 4 cautell, (north. cawteile), 4–7 cautil(e, 5 cauteel, cawtele, 5–6 cawtel(le, 5–7 cautell(e, 6 cautill, (Sc. cauteil), 4–7 cautele, 4–7 (9) cautel. [a. F. cautèle (13th c. in Littré), ad. L. cautēla of Roman Law (whence also Pr., Sp., It. cautela) precaution, f. caut- ppl. stem of cavēre to take heed.]
1. A crafty device, artifice, stratagem; a trick, sleight, deceit.
138[?]. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 6. Make knowe to þe peple the cautelis of Anticrist.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, II. lx. (1859), 57. Techinge me for to caste sleyghtes and cauteles.
1549. Compl. Scot., xiv. 118. Be ane subtile cauteil thai gart pausanias seruitur pas to the tempil.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xxi. § 9. The fraudes, cautels, impostures, and vices of euery profession.
1611. Cotgr., Cautelle, a wile, cautell, sleight.
b. Applied to things material.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., 123 (Harl. MS.). What dude he but yede, and purveyde him of iij cautils; scil. of an honest Garlonde of Rede Rosys.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., vii. No … person … with any deuise or engine made of heare, canuas, or with any other cautele shall … take any frie, spawne, or broode of yeles.
2. Cunning, craftiness, wiliness, trickery.
c. 1375. Barbour, Troy-bk., II. 114. A, what to þe wys mane rytht wele It geynes to haue þe cawteile That he be not the forspekere.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 303. But knewen men her cautel & her queynt wordes, Þei wolde worchypen hem nouȝt but a litel.
1548. Act 2 & 3 Edw. VI., xxiv. § 1. Thieves, which … by Craft and Cautele do escape from the same without Punishment.
c. 1580. Hatton, in Ld. Campbell, Chancellors (1857), II. xlv. 289. Be free from cawtell.
3. Caution, wariness, heedfulness.
1511. Elyot, Gov., I. iv. There is required to be therein [in their hearts] moche cautele and sobrenesse.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 186. With great cautele least any parte of their legges or feete bee seene.
1613. Sherley, Trav. Persia, 78. As I would preserue my selfe with more cautel heereafter.
1664. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 170. To entertain them in mutual cautele and suspicion.
4. A precaution; in Law, etc., an exception, restriction or reservation made for precaution’s sake.
1541. Elyot, Image Gov., 37. One meruailouse cautell he vsed, that is to saie, one man was not oftentymes in that truste of espial.
1563. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 202/2. Without cautels & exceptions.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 53. Revlis and cautelis to be obseruit and eschewit in Scottis Poesie.
1586. Fulke, Agst. Allen, 418 (T.). For cautele and prouision against the like sinnes.
1637. Gillespie, Eng.-Pop. Cerem., III. viii. 191. Which negative Excommunication, is … either a bare punishment, or a cautell and animadversion.
1861. C. W. Goodwin, Mosaic Cosmog., in Ess. & Rev., 209. With such limitations, cautels and equivocations.
b. Eccl. A caution or direction for the proper administration of the sacraments; esp. in cautels of the Mass.
a. 1540. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 308/2. Why doe not by this reason your owne priestes abstayne from the wine, seeing that this perill may also chaunce to them, as your cautelles of ye Masse doe graunt.
1638. Featly, Strict. Lyndom., I. 61. The cautels of the Masse appoint what is to bee done in case the Priest, being drunk before, cast up the host.
1641. R. B. K., Parallel Liturgy w. Mass-bk., 59. As we may see in these two cautels of the Masse.
1880. Edin. Rev., April, 286. The reception on the part of certain Ritualists of the Roman ‘Cautels’ for the celebration of the Mass.
¶ As adj. = CAUTELOUS.
1606. G. W[oodcocke], Hist Ivstine, 108 b. Mistrusting himselfe to be deceiued by some cautel treason.
1616. Bullokar, Cautele, warie, circumspect.
1639. G. Daniel, Ecclus. xii. 31. Be circumspect and Cautele to thy foe.
