precarious
/prɪˈkɛːrɪəs
/adjective
1Not securely held or in position; dangerously likely to fall or collapse: a precarious ladder...
- She watched in the rearview mirror as he fell from his precarious standing position on the trunk to crumple into the back seat.
- But now they have gone out on such precarious limbs their positions are clearly untenable.
- Cyclists and drivers unperturbed by my precarious position skimmed past me in both directions.
1.1Dependent on chance; uncertain: he made a precarious living as a painter...
- It's a tiny blob of lava that previously housed a small community, making a precarious living from fishing, on its rocky slopes.
- They managed to scrape a precarious living from the eggs laid by that one hen.
- The situation is even more precarious this time around.
Synonyms
uncertain, insecure, unreliable, unsure, unpredictable, undependable, risky, hazardous, dangerous, unsafe, hanging by a thread, hanging in the balance, perilous, treacherous, on a slippery slope, on thin ice, touch-and-go, built on sand, doubtful, dubious, delicate, tricky, problematic;
unsettled, unstable, unsteady, shaky, rocky, wobbly
informal dicey, chancy, hairy, iffy
British informal dodgy
archaic or humorous parlous
Derivatives
precariousness
/ noun ...- The figures, one numb and the other glib, stand on an adjacent set of tracks, which underlines the precariousness of their happy moment.
- In this second outing, the source material - the perils and precariousness of young love - is much the same.
- I think there was a certainty of personal survival in the earlier poems, and so you worried about somebody else's precariousness or extinction.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin precarius 'obtained by entreaty' (from prex, prec- 'prayer') + -ous.
This is from Latin precarius ‘obtained by entreaty’, from prex, prec- ‘prayer’. The notion is one of something being dependent on the good grace of somebody else (needing entreaty), and therefore uncertain. Prayer (Middle English) is from the same word.