perilous
[per-uh-luh s]
- involving or full of grave risk or peril; hazardous; dangerous: a perilous voyage across the Atlantic in a small boat.
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Origin of perilous
Synonyms
See more synonyms for perilous on Thesaurus.comrisky.
Antonyms
safe.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for perilously
Contemporary Examples
How many Benny Hill scenes involved the creepy, portly man zooming about perilously near an unfathomably stacked woman?
It is an everyplace, thoroughly Irish but perilously vulnerable to changes in the prevailing global winds.
Bennett has a point, but, in a perilously obtuse way, he's also missing the point.
Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn made headlines a few days by saying that Obama is “perilously close” to meeting criteria for impeachment.
Impeaching Obama May Be Absurd, but That Won’t Stop the Right-Wing FringeMichael Tomasky
August 28, 2013
This is perilously close to what buying elections looks like.
Historical Examples
Does it strike you that this is perilously near to being gossip?
The Dominant StrainAnna Chapin Ray
It was yet touch and go, however, and the breakers were perilously near.
Sir Henry Morgan, BuccaneerCyrus Townsend Brady
He filled a glass of wine and waved it perilously near the Colonel's nose.
The Wild GeeseStanley John Weyman
The invitation might be regarded as perilously near to "cheek."
Soldiers Three, Part II.Rudyard Kipling
Traverse was shocked to find how perilously his orders had been exceeded.
Capitola's PerilMrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth
perilous
- very hazardous or dangerousa perilous journey
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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 perilously
perilous
adj.
c.1300, from Old French perillos "perilous, dangerous" (Modern French périlleux) "dangerous, hazardous," from Latin periculosus "dangerous, hazardous," from periculum "a danger, attempt, risk" (see peril). Related: Perilously; perilousness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper