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.