precarious

Definitions

1. Dangerously insecure or unstable; perilous.
   comparable
2. Relating to incipient caries.
   not-comparable
3. Depending on the intention of another.

Equivalents

Examples

“One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join⟳ him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.”

“Never had he been so fond of this body of his as now when his tenure of it was so precarious.”

“The existence of Jewish partisans was precarious. They lived from hand to mouth, stealing when necessary, arranging secret deliveries of food, and spending hours and even days in holes in the ground when danger threatened.”

“One can't escape⟳ the huge nuclear facility at Sellafield (supplier of much of the line's remaining freight traffic), or miss⟳ the wild shingle beaches with exposed and precarious bungalows sandwiched between the railway and the shore at Braystones.”

CEFR level