Definition of "careful" []

• Attentive to potential danger, error, or harm; cautious: was careful when crossing the busy street; gave a careful answer. (adjective)
• Thorough and painstaking in action or execution; conscientious: a careful search; careful art restorers. (adjective)
• Protective; solicitous: Be careful of his feelings. (adjective)
• Full of cares or anxiety: "Thou art careful and troubled about many things” ( Luke 10:41). (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.

• ""I am not careful [perhaps this should be _careful not_] to notice"
• "He takes one of these plates and gives it a careful scouring with rotten-stone and alcohol or any other liquid preferred for this part of the operation -- that is, he gives it what he terms a careful scouring -- very gently indeed because, from the frequent trials he is in the habit of making in the camera, he fears he will rub the silver entirely away before he succeeds in obtaining a good impression."
• "Her thin careful hands demonstrated the various types of coffee she would make fresh for us and also purred over the strengths she had available."