| English Dictionary |
PRECARIOUS
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| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does precarious mean?
• PRECARIOUS (adjective)
The adjective PRECARIOUS has 3 senses:
1. affording no ease or reassurance
2. fraught with danger
3. not secure; beset with difficulties
Familiarity information: PRECARIOUS used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Affording no ease or reassurance
Synonyms:
precarious; unstable
Context example:
a precarious truce
Similar:
uneasy (lacking a sense of security or affording no ease or reassurance)
Derivation:
precariousness (being unsettled or in doubt or dependent on chance)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Fraught with danger
Synonyms:
parlous; perilous; precarious; touch-and-go
Context example:
dangerous surgery followed by a touch-and-go recovery
Similar:
dangerous; unsafe (involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm)
Derivation:
precariousness (extreme dangerousness)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not secure; beset with difficulties
Synonyms:
precarious; shaky
Context example:
a shaky marriage
Similar:
insecure; unsafe (lacking in security or safety)
Derivation:
precariousness (being unsettled or in doubt or dependent on chance)
Context examples
“I find life precarious enough in my present humble situation. I have no experience. Mediocrity, you see, has its compensations.”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Most cases stem from teenage or late pregnancies, precarious prenatal care, or illnesses afflicting the mother.
(Early birth main cause of child death in Brazil, Agência Brasil)
The three dollars he received for the triolets he used to eke out a precarious existence against the arrival of the White Mouse check.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
We were not allowed to converse for any length of time, for the precarious state of my health rendered every precaution necessary that could ensure tranquillity.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
In truth, Harrison was very sick, as a person is sea-sick; and for a long time he clung to his precarious perch without attempting to move.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Even if they were to leave Europe and inhabit the deserts of the new world, yet one of the first results of those sympathies for which the dæmon thirsted would be children, and a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Nay, the time came when I took joy in the run of the masthead and in the clinging on by my legs at that precarious height while I swept the sea with glasses in search of the boats.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
"We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home." (Aboriginal Australian proverbs)
"Three feet of ice does not result from one day of freezing weather." (Chinese proverb)
"The vine says to the vintager: "Make me poor, and I will make you rich."" (Corsican proverb)