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endicular, or overhanging place; an abrupt declivity; a cliff. Where wealth like fruit on precipices grew. Dryden.

Broken off; very steep, or craggy, as rocks, precipices, banks; precipitous; steep; as, abrupt places. "Tumbling through ricks abrupt," Thomson.

arge mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.

The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. "The brink of vice." Bp. Porteus. "The brink of ruin." Burke. The plashy brink of weedy lake. Bryant.

The edge or projecting upper aprt of a steep place; as, the brow of a precipice; the brow of a hill. To bend the brow, To knit the brows, to frown; to scowl.

A fall of water over a precipice, as in a river or brook; a waterfall less than a cataract. The silver brook . . . pours the white cascade. Longjellow. Now murm'ring soft, now roaring in cascade. Cawper.

A great fall of water over a precipice; a large waterfall.

A kind of circular valley in the side of a mountain, walled around by precipices of great height.

A high, steep rock; a precipice. Cliff swallow (Zoöl.), a North American swallow (Petrochelidon lunifrons), which builds its nest against cliffs; the eaves swallow.

Dark; gloomy. "The darkling precipice." Moore.

on of the States forming the United States. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion. D. Webster.

ny sharp terminating border; a margin; a brink; extreme verge; as, the edge of a 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.

Descent of water; a cascade; a cataract; a rush of water down a precipice or steep; -- usually in the plural, sometimes in the singular; as, the falls of Niagara.

he Lord thy God. Deut. xxviii. 58. Death is a fearful thing. Shak. In dreams they fearful precipices tread. Dryden.

To adorn the edge of with a fringe or as with a fringe. Precipices fringed with grass. Bryant. Fringing reef. See Coral reefs, under Coral.

To be frightened, and shrink back; to flinch; as, to funk at the edge of a precipice. [Colloq.] C. Kingsley. To funk out, to back out in a cowardly fashion. [Colloq.] To funk right out o' political strife. Lowell (Biglow Papers).

Promoting or inducing giddiness; as, a giddy height; a giddy precipice. Prior. Upon the giddy footing of the hatches. Shak.

The quality or state of being inaccessible; inaccessibleness. "The inaccessibility of the precipice." Bp. Butler.

Resembling a wall; perpendicular or steep; as, a mural precipice. Mural circle (Astron.), a graduated circle, in the plane of the meridian, attached permanently to a perpendicular wall; -- used for measuring arcs of the meridian. See Circle, n., 3. -- Mural crown (Rom. Antiq.), a golden crown, or circle of gold indent…

To plunge or fall; esp., to fall forward; to decline or slope; as, to pitch from a precipice; the vessel pitches in a heavy sea; the field pitches toward the east. Pitch and pay, an old aphorism which inculcates ready-money payment, or payment on delivery of goods. Shak.