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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Dangerously lacking in security or stability: a precarious posture; precarious footing on the ladder.
  2. adj. Subject to chance or unknown conditions: "His kingdom was still precarious; the Danes far from subdued” ( Christopher Brooke).
  3. adj. Based on uncertain, unwarranted, or unproved premises: a precarious solution to a difficult problem.
  4. adj. Archaic Dependent on the will or favor of another.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Dependent on the will or pleasure of another; liable to be lost or withdrawn at the will of another; hence, uncertain; insecure.
  2. Specifically, in law, of uncertain tenure; revocable at the will of the owner or creator: as, a precarious right or loan.
  3. Dependent only upon the will of the owner or originator; hence, arbitrary; unfounded.
  4. Dependent upon chance; of doubtful issue; uncertain as to result.
  5. Hence Dangerous; hazardous; exposed to positive peril, risk of misunderstanding, or other hazard.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous
  2. adj. depending on the intention of another

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Depending on the will or pleasure of another; held by courtesy; liable to be changed or lost at the pleasure of another.
  2. adj. Held by a doubtful tenure; depending on unknown causes or events; exposed to constant risk; not to be depended on for certainty or stability; uncertain.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. affording no ease or reassurance
  2. adj. not secure; beset with difficulties
  3. adj. fraught with danger

Etymologies

  1. From Latin precārius, obtained by entreaty, uncertain, from precārī, to entreat; see pray.

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • reesetee Haha! Oct 30, 2008

  • mollusque Eaiouzah! Oct 30, 2008

  • bilby eaiou - we've been mollusqued. Oct 29, 2008

  • chained_bear agreed, reesetee--also he's talking about the Bucks County of 1991, a good bit of time ago. Oct 29, 2008

  • reesetee Bilby, I certainly wasn't suggesting you were responsible for what's in the article. I just wanted to point out that there are vastly different viewpoints about this part of the country (including mine).

    C_b, I also think that living near a metropolitan area makes a big difference in how you might see the region in retrospect. I grew up in the same place as you, but then moved to the Philadelphia area.

    I do agree, however, that the lower end of this county has been horribly overdeveloped. That much is evident to anyone. Oct 29, 2008

  • chained_bear I think he might mean the precarious labor class, as in the ever-declining blue-collar segment of the population--declining because manufacturing is declining in this country.

    And it has been for as long as I can remember, actually. Though I went to school, as an adolescent, in an economically depressed city that had suffered very much from the decline of manufacturing. So that might color my view a bit.

    My first instinct was to take issue with Mr. Eshelman, actually. It isn't racism. It is xenophobia, as he says, and it is a sticking-with-your-own-tribe thing. To some that might be considered a euphemism for racism, but to me (and I grew up in PA), it means sticking with your own tribe (Italian with Italian; Pole with Pole; etc.). And that's not the same thing. There simply are not a lot of African Americans or other people of color in most of Pennsylvania, and that's got a lot to do with it. So while I respect his right to have an opinion, especially as a fellow Pennsylvanian, I wish he'd be more careful with his words or more clear about what he means.

    That goes for "precarious labor" as well.

    However, I do see myself in his last sentence, and--all due respect to reesetee, who obviously has a different experience or viewpoint on this--that last sentence is why I don't live in PA anymore. Oct 29, 2008

  • bilby I'm not responsible for what Mr Eshelman thinks, although I realise there are a few Pennsylvania Wordies who might have their own take. Actually I was a bit mystified by what he thought precarious meant in this context, let alone the rest. Oct 29, 2008

  • reesetee I live in Bucks County. Just so you know, this hardly describes most of the people I know here. :-) However, we are going Blue politically. Oct 29, 2008

  • bilby "In 1991, at age 17, I fled Bucks County, an overwhelmingly white, working-class region in southeast Pennsylvania where I grew up. I left because the life of the working class was brutal and I wanted no part of it. I cringed at the racism and xenophobia that seemed to rise out of the anxieties of precarious labor. I desperately hoped there was some alternative to coming home each day looking as battered as did so many grown-ups I would catch staring blankly into TV screens or half-empty glasses of beer."
    - Robert Eshelman, 'Meeting Myself in Bucks County', 28 Oct 2008. Oct 29, 2008

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