Definition of "cautionary" []

• Giving or serving as a warning; admonitory: a cautionary tale; cautionary advice. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He looked guardedly up and down the road, his expression cautionary now, one white man to another."
• "The Partnership has listed some of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements, which I refer to as cautionary statements and its earnings press release which can be viewed on the company's website on subsequent, written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the partnership or person acting on this behalf are especially qualified in their entirety by such cautionary statements."
• "Calce and journalist Craig Silverman are releasing "Mafiaboy: How I Cracked the Internet and Why It's Still Broken," which he describes as a cautionary tale that looks at his hacking past as well as the current state of personal security on the Internet."