precarious Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite affording no ease or reassurance
    unstable.
    • a precarious truce
  2. adjective satellite fraught with danger
    touch-and-go; parlous; perilous.
    • dangerous waters
    • a parlous journey on stormy seas
    • a perilous voyage across the Atlantic in a small boat
    • the precarious life of an undersea diver
    • dangerous surgery followed by a touch-and-go recovery
  3. adjective satellite not secure; beset with difficulties
    shaky.
    • a shaky marriage

WordNet

Pre*ca"ri*ous adjective
Etymology
L. precarius obtained by begging or prayer, depending on request or on the will of another, fr. precari to pray, beg. See Pray.
Definitions
  1. 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. Addison.
  2. 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. "Intervals of partial and precarious liberty." Macaulay. Syn. -- Uncertain; unsettled; unsteady; doubtful; dubious; equivocal. -- Precarious, Uncertain. Precarious in stronger than uncertain. Derived originally from the Latin precari, it first signified "granted to entreaty," and, hence, "wholly dependent on the will of another." Thus it came to express the highest species of uncertainty, and is applied to such things as depend wholly on future casualties. -- Pre*ca"ri*ous*ly, adv. -- Pre*ca"ri*ous*ness, n.

Webster 1913