ɛɡˈzɛmpləɹi ɛɡˈzɛmpləɹi məˈnɪʃn̩ ˈwɔɹnɪŋ ˈwɔːnɪŋ serving to warn shook a monitory finger at him an exemplary jail sentence cautionary advice about something imminent (especially imminent danger or other unpleasantness) a letter of admonition about the dangers of immorality the warning was to beware of surprises his final word of advice was not to play with matches notification of something, usually in advance they gave little warning of their arrival she had only had four days' warning before leaving Berlin a message informing of danger a warning that still more bombs could explode