Search the Dictionary

The action of a horse in rearing repeatedly and dangerously.

pitates her steps. Glover. If they be daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. Bacon.

; to halt. To pull through, to come successfully to the end of a difficult undertaking, a dangerous sickness, or the like.

mixed with water, sometimes found at the mouth of a river or along some coasts, and very dangerous, from the difficulty of extricating a person who begins sinking into it. Life hath quicksands, -- Life hath snares! Longfellow.

n; resort; recourse. I shall insensibly go on from a rare to a frequent recurrence to the dangerous preparations. I. Taylor.

The act of retiring or withdrawing one's self, especially from what is dangerous or disagreeable. In a retreat he oShak.

Hazardous; risky; esp., fig., verging upon impropriety; dangerously close to, or suggestive of, what is indecent or of doubtful morality; as, a risqué story. Henry Austin.

y; securing from harm; not exposing to danger; confining securely; to be relied upon; not dangerous; as, a safe harbor; a safe bridge, etc. "The man of safe discretion." Shak. The King of heaven hath doomed This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat. Milton.

A dangerous rock on the Italian coast opposite the whirpool Charybdis on the coast of Sicily, -- both personified in classical literature as ravenous monsters. The passage between them was formerly considered perilous; hence, the saying "Between Scylla and Charybdis," signifying a great peril on either hand.…

A sand bank in the sea, or a rock, or ledge of rocks, rendering the water shallow, and dangerous to ships. On the tawny sands and shelves. Milton. On the secret shelves with fury cast. Dryden.

Abounding in shelves; full of dangerous shallows. "A shelfy coast." Dryden.

Chaucer. [Egypt] hath many shrewd havens, because of the great rocks that ben strong and dangerous to pass by. Sir J. Mandeville. Every of this happy number That have endured shrewd days and nights with us. Shak.

(a) To close; to make fast the entrances into; as, to shut up a house. (b) To obstruct. "Dangerous rocks shut up the passage." Sir W. Raleigh. (c) To inclose; to confine; to imprison; to fasten in; as, to shut up a prisoner. Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards…

An enticing, dangerous woman. Shak.

in deeds or manners. Cæsar, by dismissing his guards and retaining his power, committed a dangerous solecism in politics. C. Middleton. The idea of having committed the slightest solecism in politeness was agony to him. Sir W. Scott.

; -- often with away, or off. The ministry had him spirited away, and carried abroad as a dangerous person. Arbuthnot & Pope. I felt as if I had been spirited into some castle of antiquity. Willis. Spiriting away (Law), causing to leave; the offense of inducing a witness to leave a jurisdiction so as to evade process r…

An inflammable temper; spirit; mettle; pluck; as, a man of spunk. [Colloq.] A lawless and dangerous set, men of spunk, and spirit, and power, both of mind and body. Prof. Wilson.

To spread abroad; to disseminate. She may strew dangerous conjectures. Shak.

To meddle; to be busy; to try little experiments; as, to tamper with a disease. 'T is dangerous tampering with a muse. Roscommon.

Meditation; serious consideration. Pride, of all others the most dangerous fault, Proceeds from want of sense or want of thought. Roscommon.