precipitiousadj.

1612 S. Daniel First Pt. Hist. Eng. 141 He..stood so betweene the kingdome and the Kings rigor, as stayed many precipitious violencies.

1672 O. Walker Of Educ. i. ix. 78 Cross, precipitious, despiteful, revengeful.

1811 A. Liddiard Sgelaighe 25 As when Winter torrents pour o'er the steep rock, When vex'd in their course—bold—precipitious—rash! With head-long destruction o'er vallies they dash.

1911 Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 18 Dec. 1/1 An objection by Senator Heyburn of Idaho, who protested against precipitious action, prevented the United States senate from voting today to approve the action of President Taft.

1956 Amer. Antiq. 22 173 We have made no comparative studies, nor do we have any hypothesis concerning the origin of the El Jobo culture, for it would be precipitious to advance theories which might subsequently complicate our studies more than they would orientate them.

1988 Mil. Affairs 52 193/1 In retrospect, the British action was precipitious and ill-advised.

1676 J. Glanvill Ess. vi. 24 Sutable to the Analogy of Nature, which useth not to make precipitious leaps from one thing to another, but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations.

1946 Amer. Midland Naturalist 36 683 This is the most common snake on the island... It is little inclined to precipitious retreats, usually standing its ground when approached or moving slowly off with head raised alertly.

1978 Times 22 July 7/4 The orchestra's precipitious style served Vivaldi's Seasons particularly well. I cannot remember when I last heard such violent storms.

1995 Slavic Rev. 54 531 All of the familiar explanations for communism's fall—the system's precipitious loss of authority, the growing confusion among the region's ruling elites, [etc.].

1638 R. Brathwait Surv. Hist. 8 Neither could others miseries informe them, nor their precipitious falls caution them, nor those numerous Instances of mutability recall them.

1649 Εἰκων Βασιλικη v. 35 Monarchy it self, together with Me, could not but be dashed in pieces, by such a precipitious fall as they intended.

a1705 J. Ray Trav. through Low-countries (1738) (ed. 2) 89 All boats or flotes that come down the river must here unload, there being no passing further by reason of great stones in the channel, and the precipitious descent of the water at Wasserfall.

1843 Times 17 Oct. 4/6 Over the mountain passes a sort of bridle-road, in the very worst state of repair... It can scarcely be termed a road, as down the Cribbath side of the mountain it is so precipitious that it is merely a kind of rut.

1882 Morning Rev. (Decatur, Illinois) 29 Mar. It is a wild and highly picturesque gorge, with its open end overlooking the valley of the Hudson... The precipitious road to Catskill mountain runs through it.

1927 L. Berman Relig. called Behaviorism 84 In the learning curves of Köhler's apes as well as those of others' a precipitious drop occurs, a sudden fall in the number of errors made and time consumed with the resolution of the problem by ‘insight’.

1997 Jrnl. Japanese Stud. 23 420 After the mountains were denuded and the silk boom went bust in the 1920s, the fall was precipitious and the recovery slow.