precipitous

From obsolete French précipiteux, from Vulgar Latin *praecipitosus, from prae + caput (“head”). Equivalent to precipice (“steep”) +‎ -ous.

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈsɪpɪtəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

precipitous

1. Steep, like a precipice

   a precipitous cliff

   a precipitous mountain

   a precipitous decline

   a precipitous drop

   • 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 34:

     About this time our journey began to be pleasant again. The weather warm, yet not disagreeably so, the grass abundant and of an excellent quality, the road not greatly precipitous, the scenery enchanting.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 102:

     When the wind is in the right direction, hang-gliders launch themselves giddily into space from the precipitous bank.

2. Headlong

   a precipitous fall

3. Hasty; rash; quick; sudden

   precipitous attempts

   • 2007 March, J. Michael Fay, “Ivory Wars: Last Stand in Zakouma”, in National Geographic, page 46:

     […] humans have been responsible for a precipitous decline of elephants, from perhaps 300,000 in the early 1970s to some 10,000 today.

• (steep): brant, steepdown, steep-to
• (headlong): headlong, precipitant, precipitous
• (hasty, rash): heedless, hotheaded, impetuous; see also Thesaurus:reckless
• (sudden): abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden

• “precipitous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.