heedful

adjective

heed·​ful ˈhēd-fəl How to pronounce heedful (audio)
: taking heed : attentive
heedful of what they were doing
heedfully adverb
heedfulness noun

Examples of heedful in a Sentence

heedful of snakes, we watched our footing while walking through the tall grass to the lake's edge
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
In ancient times a heedful list is a ship of the mind. Jay Pilgreen, Kansas City Star, 12 Feb. 2024 Enduring decades of bans for its salacious content, D.H. Lawrence's 1928 avant-garde novel gets a fresh adaptation under the heedful eye of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who deftly explores the depths of female desire. Lia Beck, EW.com, 12 Jan. 2024 Her heedful eyes meet those of a young Black girl in overalls and braids on the other side of the room. Hazlitt, 9 Aug. 2023 That’s partly because retailers have grown less heedful about developing the necessary pipelines, a problem that’s worsened in recent years as retailers saw profits crushed by a push into low-margin e-commerce. Phil Wahba, Fortune, 13 Feb. 2023 As with recent demands to defund the police or abolish ICE amid our domestic upheavals, such calls should be heard not as literal policy prescriptions but as cries from the heart that demand heedful response. Suzanne Nossel, WSJ, 10 Mar. 2022 Zhi-shay’ was horrified by his brother’s treatment, but also heedful of the powerful pack rules in which such cruelty is embedded. Pamela Miller, Star Tribune, 7 Aug. 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. R. Jeffrey Smith, Science | AAAS, 30 June 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1540, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of heedful was in 1540

Dictionary Entries Near heedful

Cite this Entry

“Heedful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heedful. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

heedful

adjective
heed·​ful ˈhēd-fəl How to pronounce heedful (audio)
: taking heed : attentive
heedfully adverb
heedfulness noun
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!