Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Imminent danger.
  • noun Exposure to the risk of harm or loss.
  • noun Something that endangers or involves risk.
  • transitive verb To expose to danger or the chance of injury; imperil.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To hazard; risk; put in peril or danger.
  • To be in danger.
  • noun Danger; risk; hazard; jeopardy; exposure of person or property to injury, loss, or destruction.
  • noun In law, a source of danger: a possible casualty contemplated as the cause of loss or injury.
  • noun =Syn 1. jeopardy, etc. See danger and risk.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Danger; risk; hazard; jeopardy; exposure of person or property to injury, loss, or destruction.
  • noun with risk or danger to one; at the hazard of.
  • transitive verb To expose to danger; to hazard; to risk.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To be in danger.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A situation of serious and immediate danger.
  • noun Something that causes, contains, or presents danger.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb pose a threat to; present a danger to
  • noun a venture undertaken without regard to possible loss or injury
  • noun a state of danger involving risk
  • verb put in a dangerous, disadvantageous, or difficult position
  • noun a source of danger; a possibility of incurring loss or misfortune

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin perīculum; see per- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French peril, from Latin perīculum.

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