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Precarious vs Dicey - What's the difference?

precarious | dicey |

As adjectives the difference between precarious and dicey

is that precarious is (comparable) dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous or precarious can be (dentistry) relating to incipient caries while dicey is fraught with danger.

precarious

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , and Spanish and Italian precario.

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (comparable) Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.}}
  • (legal) Depending on the intention of another.

    • Synonyms

    * (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) unsteady, rickety, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

    Usage notes

    * Because the (term) element of (term) derives from prex and not the preposition prae, this term cannot — etymologically speaking — be written as *.

    Quotations

    * 1906 , (Jack London), , part I, ch III, *: Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious .

    Derived terms

    * precariously * precariousness * precariat * precarisation, precarization * precarity

    External links

    * *

    Etymology 2

    pre-'' + ''carious

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (dentistry) Relating to incipient caries.

    • dicey

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Fraught with danger.
  • Of uncertain, risky outcome.
  • * 2012 , Jonathan Deutsch, Natalya Murakhver (editors), They Eat That?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from Around the World , page 161,
    • Devouring the flesh of animals killed on roadways can be a bit dicey .
  • Of doubtful or uncertain efficacy, provenance, etc.; dodgy.
  • * 1992 , Vincent O'Sullivan, The Witness Man'', in ''Palms and Minarets: Selected Stories , page 95,
    • As if I'm not a bit past that, Clem thought, as if with his dicey ticker and all he shouldn?t be taking life pretty quietly, instead of waking with the old memoroes disturbing him.
  • * 2011 , Jay Baer, Amber Naslund, The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social , page xv,
    • If you were in the business of selling dicey meat, the invention of the telephone rocked your world.
  • (slang) Nauseating, rank.
  • * 2011 , Keemholems Ojei, The Narcodollar Chieftains: The Narcotics Godfathers , page 101,
    • Some more birds were scared off by the dicey smell. The man was dying gradually.