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Precarious   /prikˈɛriəs/   Listen
adjective
Precarious  adj.  
1.
Depending on the will or pleasure of another; held by courtesy; liable to be changed or lost at the pleasure of another; as, precarious privileges.
2.
Held by a doubtful tenure; depending on unknown causes or events; exposed to constant risk; not to be depended on for certainty or stability; uncertain; as, a precarious state of health; precarious fortunes. "Intervals of partial and precarious liberty."
Synonyms: Uncertain; unsettled; unsteady; doubtful; dubious; equivocal. Precarious, Uncertain. Precarious in stronger than uncertain. Derived originally from the Latin precari, it first signified "granted to entreaty," and, hence, "wholly dependent on the will of another." Thus it came to express the highest species of uncertainty, and is applied to such things as depend wholly on future casualties.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Precarious" Quotes from Famous Books



... 8-pounder. Twice the gunners were shot down, and fresh men sent to take their places. Then Dunn himself fell, and immediately afterward Lieutenant Benjamin and his first sergeant met the same fate. The riflemen in the arches repelled sallies; but Quitman's position was precarious, till ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17 • Charles Francis Horne

... of hills which extended around the western side of the village was occupied by several families, known as the "Hillers." They were ignorant, degraded people, living in miserable hovels, and obtaining a precarious subsistence by hunting, fishing, and stealing. With them the villagers rarely, if ever, had intercourse, and respectable persons seldom crossed their thresholds. The principal man among the Hillers was known as Bill ...
— Frank, the Young Naturalist • Harry Castlemon

... mental audacity of the youth won him recognition; he picked up a precarious living, and was a frequenter at scientific lectures and discussions, and in gatherings where great themes were up for debate, he ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Philosophers, Volume 8 • Elbert Hubbard

... impersonal kind of black necktie, sleeping, I dare say, in what used jocularly to be called a 'nightie'; but our younger leaders go appropriately clad, to the eye, in exquisitely fitting, ready-to-wear clothes. So, too, does the Correspondence-School graduate, rising like an escaped balloon from his once precarious place among the untrained workers to the comfortable security of general manager. Here and there, an echo of the past, persists the pretence that men are superior to any but practical considerations in respect to clothing; but if this were so, I need hardly point out that more would dress like ...
— The Perfect Gentleman • Ralph Bergengren

... the more because Felix supported his opinion with certain facts, relating what he knew of Raoul Nathan's life,—a precarious existence mixed up with ...
— A Daughter of Eve • Honore de Balzac


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