precarious

Speech parts

1. precarious - Adjective

2. precarious - Adjective Satellite

Meaning

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.

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.

Source: Webster's dictionary

Synonyms

uncertain unstable doubtful shaky perilous touch-and-go rocky critical dangerous hazardous risky dubious insecure wobbly unsafe
Show all synonyms

Antonyms

certain strong stable FAST easy secure
Show all antonyms

Phrases with the word

in a precarious position in a precarious situation precarious place precarious situation

Examples

Liberalism, on the other hand, regards life as an adventure in which we must take risks in new situations, in which there is no guarantee that the new will always be the good or the true, in which progress is a precarious achievement rather than inevitability. Morris Raphael Cohen

The precarious ontological link between Logos and Eros is broken, and scientific rationality emerges as essentially neutral. Herbert Marcuse

Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future. Susan Sontag

The simplicity and uniformity of rural occupations, and their incessant practice, preclude any anxieties and agitations of hope and fear, to which employments of a more precarious and casual nature are subject. William Falconer

To describe a person who has just gotten out from a precarious situation just to get into another precarious situation. Indonesian Proverb

Commerce flourishes by circumstances precarious. American Proverb

Close letter words and terms

precare precarial precariat precarious place precarious situation precariously