danger
[deyn-jer]
- liability or exposure to harm or injury; risk; peril.
- an instance or cause of peril; menace.
- Obsolete. power; jurisdiction; domain.
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Origin of danger
Synonym study
1. Danger, hazard, peril, jeopardy imply harm that one may encounter. Danger is the general word for liability to all kinds of injury or evil consequences, either near at hand and certain, or remote and doubtful: to be in danger of being killed. Hazard suggests a danger that one can foresee but cannot avoid: A mountain climber is exposed to many hazards. Peril usually denotes great and imminent danger: The passengers on the disabled ship were in great peril. Jeopardy, a less common word, has essentially the same meaning as peril, but emphasizes exposure to the chances of a situation: To save his friend he put his life in jeopardy.
dang
[dang]
- damn (used euphemistically).
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Origin of dang
First recorded in 1780–90
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
perilriskprobabilityexposureinsecurityjeopardyuncertaintyemergencypossibilitythreatvulnerabilityinstabilitymenacecrisispitfallprecariousnessventureexigencyprecipiceendangermentExamples from the Web for danger
Contemporary Examples
Kickstarter is one start-up platform that seems to have realized the danger.
He remained as hopeful as ever that he would himself join the NYPD, whatever the danger.
They work in a world filled with a sense—real or imagined—of danger lurking around each corner and every hallway.
The actions of North Korea this week should also send a clear message about the danger of this regime.
Hornbuckle, on the other hand, says the policy will not put Native American nations in danger.
Historical Examples
But the Lacedæmonians make it a rule never to speak of danger from their slaves.
PhilotheaLydia Maria Child
When you get back, if you get a chance to see him privately, you may tell him there is no danger of that.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Dost think I can let thee go into a danger I do not partake?
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
They are barren, till the imagination has tenanted them with possibilities of danger and dismay.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
She evidently preferred facing any danger to parting with her child.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
danger
- the state of being vulnerable to injury, loss, or evil; risk
- a person or thing that may cause injury, pain, etc
- obsolete power
- in danger of liable to
- on the danger list critically ill in hospital
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Word Origin
C13: daunger power, hence power to inflict injury, from Old French dongier (from Latin dominium ownership) blended with Old French dam injury, from Latin damnum
dang
- a euphemistic word for damn (def. 1), damn (def. 2), damn (def. 3), damn (def. 4)
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for danger
n.
mid-13c., "power of a lord or master, jurisdiction," from Anglo-French daunger, Old French dangier "power, power to harm, mastery, authority, control" (12c., Modern French danger), alteration (due to assoc. with damnum) of dongier, from Vulgar Latin *dominarium "power of a lord," from Latin dominus "lord, master" (see domain).
Modern sense of "risk, peril" (from being in the control of someone or something else) evolved first in French and was in English late 14c. Replaced Old English pleoh; in early Middle English this sense is found in peril.
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dang
1793, euphemism for damn.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper