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or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point. This hour's the very crisis of your fate. Dryden. The very times of crisis for the fate of the country. Brougham.

A figure of speech in which opposite things or persons are compared. Crabb.

The crisis or height of a disease.

Having no crisis; giving no indications of a crisis; as, acritical symptoms, an acritical abscess.

Attended with symptoms of some degree of severity, and coming speedily to a crisis; -- opposed to chronic; as, an acute disease. Acute angle (Geom.), an angle less than a right angle.

Violence of a disease, which brings it speedily to a crisis.

Exciting, or calculated to excite, alarm; causing apprehension of danger; as, an alarming crisis or report. -- A*larm"ing*ly, adv.

bate or subside. [Archaic] "The waters assuaged." Gen. vii. 1. The plague being come to a crisis, its fury began to assuage. De Foe.

A crisis produced by a combination of circumstances; complication or combination of events or circumstances; plight resulting from various conditions. He [Chesterfield] had recently governed Ireland, at a momentous conjuncture, with eminent firmness, wisdom, and humanity. Macaulay.

Pertaining to, or indicating, a crisis, turning point, or specially important juncture; important as regards consequences; hence, of doubtful issue; attended with risk; dangerous; as, the critical stage of a fever; a critical situation. Our circumstances are indeed critical. Burke. The small moment, the exact point, th…

At a crisis; at a critical time; in a situation. place, or condition of decisive consequence; as, a fortification critically situated. Coming critically the night before the session. Bp. Burnet.

Culminating point or crisis; hence, strength; force; height. Ere foul sin, gathering head, shall break into corruption. Shak. The indisposition which has long hung upon me, is at last grown to such a head, that it must quickly make an end of me or of itself. Addison.

of time; esp., one made critical or important by a concurrence of circumstances; hence, a crisis; an exigency. "Extraordinary junctures." Addison. In such a juncture, what can the most plausible and refined philosophy offer Berkeley.

Gradually decreasing; past the acme, or crisis, as a distemper. Dunglison.

To urge or press on with eager haste or violence; to cause to happen, or come to a crisis, suddenly or too soon; as, precipitate a journey, or a conflict. Back to his sight precipitates her steps. Glover. If they be daring, it may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. Bacon.

Tending or directed toward Rome, or toward the Roman Catholic Church. To analyze the crisis in its Anglican rather than in its Romeward aspect. Gladstone.

A crisis.

t and stationary condition, as that of maturity between growth and decline, or as that of crisis between the increase and the abating of a disease; height; acme. [Obs.]