heed

Careful attention.

Noun

  1. Careful attention.
    • Then for a few minutes I did not pay much heed to what was said, being terribly straitened for room, and cramped with pain from lying so long in one place. - [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto,...

Origin

From Middle English heden, from Old English hēdan (“to heed, take care, observe, attend, guard, take charge, take possession, receive”), from Proto-West Germanic *hōdijan (“to heed, guard”), from Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- (“to heed, protect”). Cognate with West Frisian hoedje (“to heed”), Dutch hoeden (“to heed”), German hüten (“to heed”).

Synonyms

attention notice observation regard

Derived

give heed heedful heedless heedworthy heedy misheed pay heed pay no heed take heed

Verb

  1. To guard, protect.
  2. To mind; to regard with care; to take notice of; to attend to; to observe.
    • With pleasure Argus the musician heeds. - 1567, Ovid, translated by John Dryden, Metamorphoses, Book 1:
    • "It comes back to me that I wanted to say something to the driver and that I couldn't make him heed me." - 1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder...
    • The help tended to be officious, the rules, if heeded, restrictive, and the management meddlesome. - 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC,...

    Synonyms: consider mark take note attend clock give heed heed let in on mind notice pass pay attention pay heed pick up what someone is putting down privy regard take heed take notice

  3. To pay attention, care.

    Synonyms: mind reck becare bother care concern oneself heed trouble oneself worry

Forms

heeds heeding heeded

Derived

heeder misheed unheed unheeded unheeding