take heed

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take heed (third-person singular simple present takes heed, present participle taking heed, simple past took heed, past participle taken heed)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic) To pay attention.

   The king spoke and the lords took heed.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i], page 14:

     Pro. Then, as my gueſt, and thine owne acquiſition / Worthily purchas'd, take my daughter : But / If thou do'ſt breake her Virgin-knot, before / All ſanctimonious ceremonies may / With full and holy right, be miniſtred, / No ſweet aſperſion ſhall the heauens let fall / To make this contract grow; but barraine hate, / Sower-ey'd diſdaine, and diſcord ſhall beſtrew / The vnion of your bed, with weedes ſo loathly / That you ſhall hate it both : Therefore take heede, / As Hymens Lamps ſhall light you.

• Used with of, or formerly to, when an object follows.

• give heed