chary

adj

1. Careful, cautious, shy, wary.

   “The Charieſt maide is prodigall enough, / If ſhe vnmaske hir beautie to the Moone.”

   “[E]ls is he chary and wary to lay himſelfe open to any daunger, if the finall end of his endeauour and toile bee not plauſible in his demurring judgement.”

   “[Y]our Women of Honour, as you call 'em, are only chary of their reputations, not their Perſons, and 'tis ſcandal they wou'd avoid, not Men: [...]”

   “However, the moſt Solid and Apprehenſive ſort of Men cannot be perſwaded, that thoſe two Monarchs [Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and Charles II of Spain], being more Chary of their Honour and their Reputation, then the Duke of Savoy [Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia], who ſo ignominouſly abandon'd the Confederates, Innocent XII. will not find that Eaſineſs in them to be wrought upon, which he met with in the King of Cyprus; [...]”

   “Of ſpotleſs fame, be chary as your lives! / Keep wide of proof, and you're the beſt of wives!”

2. Excessively particular or fussy about details; fastidious.
3. Not disposed to give freely; not lavish; frugal, sparing.

   “Oh! look not thus o'erjoy'd, for if I thought / We e'er could meet again this side the grave, / Trust me, I had been charier of my tenderness.”

   “The house had a projecting window, where the poet [Percy Bysshe Shelley] loved to sit with book in hand, and catch, according to his custom, the maximum of sunlight granted by a chary English summer.”

   “Virginia had been somewhat chary of favors to her distinguished son, and it was from a son of Massachusetts that his highest honors came, for President John Adams, in recognition of his great ability, made [John] Marshall secretary of state after having offered him an appointment to the supreme bench, which he declined.”

   “We instinctively know that nature supplied the form but, ever chary of favors, has passed on to give the beautiful fare perhaps, to a woman of unlovely form.”

   “American forces on the west of the Soissons salient stopped a German advance and the French, who are chary of compliments, declared that our "lightning trained" men conducted themselves as veterans.”

4. (obsolete)Cared for, regarded as precious; cherished.

   “The bounty so much delighted mine host, that he ran to fill the stirrup-cup (for which no charge was ever made) from a butt yet charier than that which he had pierced for the former stoup.”

adv

1. Synonym of charily: carefully, cautiously, warily.

   “O therefore loue be of thy ſelfe ſo wary, / As I not for my ſelfe, but for thee will, / Bearing thy heart, which I will keep ſo chary / As tender nurſe her babe from faring ill, [...]”