Search the Dictionary

Full of, attended with, or involving, peril; dangerous; hazardous; as, a perilous undertaking. Infamous hills, and sandy, perilous wilds. Milton.

ventures; as, the merchant adventurers; one who seeks his fortune in new and hazardous or perilous enterprises.

A stream or rivulet; a burn. My little boat can safely pass this perilous bourn. Spenser.

a mind diseased, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the suffed bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart Shak.

ure; that which gives a hint in the solution of a mystery. The clew, without which it was perilous to enter the vast and intricate maze of countinental politics, was in his hands. Macaulay.

Attended or beset with danger; full of risk; perilous; hazardous; unsafe. Our troops set forth to-morrow; stay with us; The ways are dangerous. Shak. It is dangerous to assert a negative. Macaulay.

Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable; past cure, or, at least, extremely dangerous; as, a desperate disease; desperate fortune.

Shak. Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, Through words and things, a dim and perilous way. Wordsworth.

table, a precipice. Upon the edge of yonder coppice. Shak. In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge Of battle. Milton. Pursue even to the very edge of destruction. Sir W. Scott.

To search into the origin of words; to deduce words from their simple roots. How perilous it is to etymologize at random. Trench.

eers, to attempt a breach, scale the wall of a fortress, or perform other extraordinarily perilous service; also, a desperate case or enterprise.

pres. & imp. sing. & pl. of Hote, to be called. See Hote. [Obs.] Chaucer. A full perilous place, purgatory it hatte. Piers Plowman.

Full of danger; threatening; menacing; perilous. Hairbreadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach. Shak.

us crime was committed, or as being associated with something detestable; hence, unlucky; perilous; dangerous. "Infamous woods." P. Fletcher. Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds. Milton. The piny shade More infamous by cursed Lycaon made. Dryden.

Perilous; hazardous. His goodly, valiant, and jeopardous enterprise. Fuller. -- Jeop"ard*ous*ly, adv. Huloet.

A saying, deed, or example, worthy of record. Acts and Monuments of these latter and perilous days. Foxe.

Perilous. [Obs.] Spenser.

To cause to fall; to cast down. On the other side they saw that perilous rock Threatening itself on them to ruinate. Spenser.

ion to; to ratify; to confirm; to approve. Would have counseled, or even sanctioned, such perilous experiments. De Quincey.

assical 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.