Precipitous
[prɪ'sɪpɪtəs]
Definition
(a.) Steep, like a precipice; as, a precipitous cliff or mountain.
(a.) Headlong; as, precipitous fall.
(a.) Hasty; rash; quick; sudden; precipitate; as, precipitous attempts.
Typist: Remington
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Steep, abrupt.[2]. Hasty, rash, heady, headlong, precipitate, reckless, indiscreet.
Editor: Thea
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Steep, headlong, abrupt, sheer, perpendicular, beetling, rash, dangerous
ANT:Shallow, graduated, inclined, undulating
Checked by Adrienne
Examples
- One of his favourite amusements, we are told, was the expensive one of rolling elephants down precipitous places in order to watch their sufferings. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- It was fortified both on the top and on the rocky and precipitous sides. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Beyond that the hills become precipitous. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Still he went on, for his mind was as utterly narrowed into that precipitous crevice of play as if he had been the most ignorant lounger there. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I gave it her; and she regarded the now visible, but precipitous steps, as if calculating her capacity to descend. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- The arid island of Malta came in sight, and they saw its precipitous shores rising sternly from the tideless waters. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Captain Lennox and another lately married officer shared a villa, high up on the beautiful precipitous rocks overhanging the sea. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- On the east side of the ridge, which is quite precipitous, is a ravine running first north, then westerly, terminating at Baker's Creek. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- She continued her course along the precipitous sides of the river, when suddenly her foot slipt, and she fell into the rapid stream. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
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