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I read the below sentence but I haven't found the meaning of the phrase "take warning from".

The sentence is: "An alert investor might have taken warning of this possibility from statements contained in the annual reports."

I only found several examples of uses, starting with 2 consecutive Ezekiel verses, but couldn't find the definition of this phrase. -I tried clarifying 'take sth from', but it didn't make sense. the word 'take' in itself has one definition of 'understand in a particular way', as in 'take it as a joke', 'take it too literally', etc. But it still doesn't quite make sense in the sentence's context because it seems as if the sentence should've read differently, e.g. "An alert investor might have taken this possibility as a warning from statements contained in the annual reports."

I can guess its meaning, of course, but I try to avoid guessing the meaning of a misunderstood word as much as possible, and rely on accepted dictionaries. Can anyone help clarify the phrase "take warning from" or refer me to any source for a definition?

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  • Red sky at morning, sailor take warning; red sky a night, sailor's delight.
    – GEdgar
    Commented Oct 16, 2022 at 18:28

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It means "be warned by".

Specifically the alert investors, if they had read certain "statements contained in the annual reports", might have been warned by those statements of the "possibility" of something occurring. (The "something" being a thing referred to before).

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  • 1
    Just my brain's autocorrect kicking in.
    – DJClayworth
    Commented Oct 16, 2022 at 18:17

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