Also 6 caviate, 6–7 caveate. [L. caveat let him beware, 3rd sing. pres, subj. of cavēre to beware.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 118. Yf … he be tame & haue ben ryden vpon, than caueat emptor, beware ye byer.]
1. Law. A process in court (originally in ecclesiastical courts) to suspend proceedings; a notice given by some party to the proper officer not to take a certain step until the party giving the notice has been heard in opposition. Phrase, To enter or put in a caveat: also fig. see 2 b.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 45. A Caveat they found entred in the Bishops Office, by a Gentleman, one of the Petti-Bag, who pretended a Title.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Caveat, used among the Proctors, when a person is dead, and a competition ariseth for the Executorship, or Administratorship, the party concerned enters a Caveat, to prevent or admonish others from intermedling.
1667. Marvell, Corr., cxiv. Wks. 1872–5, II. 273. I entered caveats both at Mr. Atturny’s and Mr. Sollicitor’s.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 145. A Caveat in Law … is an Intimation given to some Ordinary or Ecclesiastical Judge … notifying to him that he ought to beware how he acts in such or such an Affair.
1818. Cruise, Digest, V. 95. All caveats that shall not be so renewed, shall lose their force and be void.
1884. Law Rep. 9 Probate Div. 23. The … defendant, one of the next of kin, entered a caveat.
2. transf. A warning, admonition, caution.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., Y iij b. A caueat, to be ware of to moche confidence.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 85. Such od caueats, as I to the frendlye can vtter.
1646. S. Bolton, Arraignm. Err., 50. A caveat to you how you live.
1651. Wittie, trans. Primrose’s Pop. Err., IV. 248. Those Caveats, whereof Astrologers do every year warn the people.
1712. Budgell, Spect., No. 365, ¶ 1. I design this paper as a Caveat to the Fair Sex.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (1816), IV. 448. A caveat against ostentatious bounty and favour to negroes.
1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1872), I. V. iii. 531. With this caveat let us now pass … to more complex cases.
b. To put in or enter a caveat (in senses 2 & 3).
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 405. It pleased the goodnesse of God by giuing the law to put in a caueat … for the tranquilitie of mankinde.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXVI. xxiv. 602. They should put in a caveat, that he might have no libertie to warre upon the Ætolians.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., I. xii. 37. She enters a silent caveat by a blush.
1755. Young, Centaur, I. Wks. 1757, IV. 116. Putting in a caveat against the ridicule of infidels.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, II. x. (1878), 108. To enter a caveat against a misconception.
† 3. A condition previously laid down; a proviso, reservation; = CAUTION sb. 2. Obs.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’ Parl., 370. M. Heskins fombleth out the matter with a foolish caueat, yt … he suffreth not violence nor paine.
1648. Gage, West Ind., xxi. (1655), 196. Some [lodgings] were offered me for nothing, with this caveat, that when the Galeons did come, I must [etc.].
† 4. A precaution; = CAUTION sb. 5. Obs.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (1862), 539/1. The chiefest caveat and provision in the reformation of the North must be to keep out those Scottes.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 54. Let them vse this caueat especially; that they take but little at a time.
1643. Burroughes, Exp. Hosea, ix. (1652), 310. God laid in a caveat and provision for the encouragement of them.
5. U.S. Patent Laws. ‘A description of some invention, designed to be patented, lodged in the office before the patent right is taken out, operating as a bar to applications respecting the same invention, from any other quarter’ (Webster).
1879. G. Prescott, Sp. Telephone, 256. A caveat, describing this invention, was filed by Gray.
