precipice
Americannoun
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a cliff with a vertical, nearly vertical, or overhanging face.
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a situation of great peril.
on the precipice of war.
noun
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the steep sheer face of a cliff or crag
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the cliff or crag itself
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a precarious situation
Other Word Forms
- precipiced adjective
- unprecipiced adjective
Etymology
Origin of precipice
1590–1600; < Middle French < Latin praecipitium steep place, equivalent to praecipit- (stem of praeceps ) steep, headlong ( prae- pre- + -cipit-, combining form of caput head; caput ) + -ium -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
England were pushed towards the precipice of the fastest Ashes series defeat in more than 100 years as a Travis Head century maintained Australia's grip on the third Test in Adelaide.
From BBC
“The global media industry stands at the precipice of historic transformation,” Bank of America media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich and three colleagues wrote in a Monday research report.
From Los Angeles Times
Environmental advocates fear that many more landfills may be on the precipice of these largely unmanageable disasters.
From Los Angeles Times
Smith stood at the precipice of stardom four years later, when she released “Wave” in 1979.
From Los Angeles Times
Helpless, Penelope stood like a statue, not daring to take a step lest she tumble off some unseen precipice.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
