toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

precipitate
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • The agency recommended against taking precipitate action.
  • Exit Estragon left, precipitately.   (source)
    precipitately = suddenly (acting with great haste)
  • There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind, and as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control.   (source)
    precipitately = suddenly
  • Yet all these changes were, in one sense, so fantastic and had been made so precipitately that it wasn't easy to regard them as likely to have any permanence.   (source)
    precipitately = with great haste
  • They went with the churches, and you were left with the grey slow dawns and the precipitate nights as the only measurements of time.   (source)
    precipitate = quickly descending (getting dark fast)
  • He was not prone to rashness and precipitate action;   (source)
    precipitate = acting with great haste -- often without adequate thought
  • Seeing the throng, Marija abandoned precipitately the debate concerning the ancestors of her coachman, and, springing from the moving carriage, plunged in and proceeded to clear a way to the hall.   (source)
    precipitately = with great haste
  • He talked precipitately, and I did not try to stop him.   (source)
    precipitately = with great haste -- perhaps implying that he doesn't think enough about the ramifications of what he says
  • But now that I was beginning to understand something of his quality, I could divine the stress he laid on doing nothing precipitately.   (source)
    precipitately = with great haste
  • At this point I precipitately found myself aware of three things.   (source)
    precipitately = quickly or immediately
▲ show less (of above)
show 68 more with this conextual meaning
  • The crowd at the door fell back precipitately.   (source)
    precipitately = with great haste
  • The monkey had come out on Jack's shoulder, but no sooner did it catch sight of the jackal, than it fled precipitately back into the tent, and hid itself in a heap of moss until nothing was visible but the tip of its little nose.   (source)
  • His downfall, too, will not be more precipitate than awkward.   (source)
    precipitate = sudden or fast
  • Crawford had been too precipitate.   (source)
    precipitate = acted too quickly
  • The aircar flung itself through the air at R17 and above, deposited them next to the Heart of Gold which stood starkly on the frozen ground like a bleached bone, and then precipitately hurled itself back in the direction whence they had come, presumably on important business of its own.†   (source)
  • You moved too precipitately for the good of our enterprise.†   (source)
  • They depart, more precipitately.†   (source)
  • At that Mr. Heelas fled precipitately upstairs, and the rest of the chase is beyond his purview.   (source)
    precipitately = with great haste
  • He was always keyed up, alert for attack, wary of being attacked, with an eye for sudden and unexpected missiles, prepared to act precipitately and coolly, to leap in with a flash of teeth, or to leap away with a menacing snarl.   (source)
  • Despairing of all further efforts, I was precipitately leaving him, when a final thought occurred to me—one which had not been wholly unindulged before.   (source)
  • All these sons of Dhritarashtra, together with the hosts of monarchs, and Bhishma, Drona, and Karna, and the warrior chiefs of our side as well, enter precipitately thy tusked and terrible mouths, frightful to behold.†   (source)
  • Both rose, rather precipitately, and with a toss of her head, Aunt Bertha hurried into the front room to get their coats, leaving Mr. Sternowitz stranded in the kitchen.†   (source)
  • It seems that there was something like a panic in a restaurant because a customer suddenly felt ill, went very white, and staggered precipitately to the door.†   (source)
  • With Asa then the retired quite precipitately to a small room back of the mission hall.†   (source)
  • The little champion of Rum Alley stumbled precipitately down the other side.†   (source)
  • 'Are you certain?' demanded Nicholas, precipitately; 'not even to my mother or sister?†   (source)
  • Laurie backed precipitately into a corner, and put his hands behind him with an imploring gesture.†   (source)
  • Without relinquishing her hold of Jude's hand she swerved aside and flung herself down on the sod under a stunted thorn, precipitately pulling Jude on to his knees at the same time.†   (source)
  • Mr. and Mrs. van der Luyden had come to town for a few days from Skuytercliff, whither they had precipitately fled at the announcement of Beaufort's failure.†   (source)
  • He looked at her, Leonora said, with what was practically a glance of hatred and then, precipitately, he left the breakfast-table.†   (source)
  • A little later, with the exquisite manners of the alcoholic that are like the manners of a prisoner or a family servant, he said good-by to an acquaintance, and turning around discovered that the bar's great moment was over as precipitately as it had begun.†   (source)
  • And falling precipitately upon a prayer-book bound in purple velvet, with gilt clasps, out of which in her haste she let fall a shower of the little pictures, each in a lace fringe of yellowish paper, which she used to mark the places of the greater feasts of the church, my aunt, while she swallowed her drops, began at full speed to mutter the words of the sacred text, its meaning being slightly clouded in her brain by the uncertainty whether the pepsin, when taken so long after the…†   (source)
  • We talked in this manner through the early morning time, and later crept out of the bushes, and, after scanning the sky for Martians, hurried precipitately to the house on Putney Hill where he had made his lair.†   (source)
  • She looked across the table at her husband, and said precipitately: "I'm sure Ellen meant it kindly."†   (source)
  • My second was a violent perception of the mistake of my first: the man who met my eyes was not the person I had precipitately supposed.†   (source)
  • The dog-musher let go of him precipitately, with action similar to that of a man who has picked up live fire.†   (source)
  • He could not understand why Leonora should have abandoned him so precipitately when she only thought that he had gone yachting with the Clinton Morleys.†   (source)
  • This first vividness of vision and emotion were things of a few seconds, during which Mrs. Grose's dazed blink across to where I pointed struck me as a sovereign sign that she too at last saw, just as it carried my own eyes precipitately to the child.†   (source)
  • At such times, confronted by three sets of savage teeth, the young wolf stopped precipitately, throwing himself back on his haunches, with forelegs stiff, mouth menacing, and mane bristling.†   (source)
  • Amy, who was fond of delicate fare, took a heaping spoonful, choked, hid her face in her napkin, and left the table precipitately.†   (source)
  • She herself had taken up the making of a toy for the curate's children, and was not going to enter on any subject too precipitately.†   (source)
  • Then she saw the captain frown, a beautiful young girl who was leaning against him gazed at him with disdainful lips and irritated eyes; then Phoebus uttered some words which did not reach her, and both disappeared precipitately behind the window opening upon the balcony, which closed after them.†   (source)
  • Under its influence, he exclaimed aloud: "She expects you, and is at hand"; and precipitately left the cavern.†   (source)
  • Still further, in Buckingham's lodging, which he had been forced to abandon more precipitately than he expected, papers were found which confirmed this alliance and which, as the cardinal asserts in his memoirs, strongly compromised Mme. de Chevreuse and consequently the queen.†   (source)
  • Whether Mr. Creakle was in earnest, or whether he only did it to frighten me, I don't know, but he made a burst out of his chair, before which I precipitately retreated, without waiting for the escort Of the man with the wooden leg, and never once stopped until I reached my own bedroom, where, finding I was not pursued, I went to bed, as it was time, and lay quaking, for a couple of hours.†   (source)
  • He concealed himself precipitately in a ditch, and there waited until the passers-by were at a distance.†   (source)
  • "Lord help us, they are perfect devils!" said Marks, heading the retreat down the rocks with much more of a will than he had joined the ascent, while all the party came tumbling precipitately after him,—the fat constable, in particular, blowing and puffing in a very energetic manner.†   (source)
  • So they go out in a loose procession, something after the manner of a straggling funeral, and make their inspection in Mr. Krook's back second floor, from which a few of the jurymen retire pale and precipitately.†   (source)
  • She was hurrying past Nicholas, when he threw himself before her, and implored her to think, but once again, upon the fate to which she was precipitately hastening.†   (source)
  • Go long to de spring and wash yerselves!" she said, seconding her exhortations by a slap, which resounded very formidably, but which seemed only to knock out so much more laugh from the young ones, as they tumbled precipitately over each other out of doors, where they fairly screamed with merriment.†   (source)
  • …he had hastened to Milady's chamber, had found it empty, the window open, and the bars filed, had remembered the verbal caution d'Artagnan had transmitted to him by his messenger, had trembled for the duke, and running to the stable without taking time to have a horse saddled, had jumped upon the first he found, had galloped off like the wind, had alighted below in the courtyard, had ascended the stairs precipitately, and on the top step, as we have said, had encountered Felton.†   (source)
  • The land fell away rather precipitately in front, and beneath their eyes stretched, for several miles, a narrow, dark, and wooded vale.†   (source)
  • The grandfather, trembling at having so inopportunely introduced Andre Chenier, resumed precipitately: "Cut his throat is not the word.†   (source)
  • Such an extraordinary sign of confidence was received by the orator as a highly favorable omen; and though the animal retreated a little precipitately, he was lavish of his thanks and commendations.†   (source)
  • A moment later, the riot approaches and gains in force, he shuts up his shop precipitately, hastily dons his uniform, that is to say, he places his merchandise in safety and risks his own person.†   (source)
  • You won't have anything else here." and having delivered her defiance all on one breath, Meg cast away her pinafore and precipitately left the field to bemoan herself in her own room.†   (source)
  • Nicholas stammered out an awkward apology, and was precipitately retiring, when the young lady, turning her head a little, presented to his view the features of the lovely girl whom he had seen at the register-office on his first visit long before.†   (source)
  • Once or twice the listeners thought they could distinguish the distant rustling of bushes, as bodies of some unknown description rushed through them; nor was it long before Hawkeye pointed out the "scampering of the wolves," as they fled precipitately before the passage of some intruder on their proper domains.†   (source)
  • Jo had backed into a corner, and as she finished her speech, she vanished precipitately into the kitchen, where she sat down upon a dresser and told the assembled cats that she was "happy, oh, so happy!" while Laurie departed, feeling that he had made a rather neat thing of it.†   (source)
  • He rushed forward precipitately rather than walked, hoping to find some side-street, to make his escape through it, and thus to break his scent once more.†   (source)
  • The pupils one day succeeded in getting possession of this book, and set to reading it with avidity, a reading which was often interrupted by the fear of being caught, which caused them to close the volume precipitately.†   (source)
  • As the laugh subsided, Mrs. March began to thank Mr. Brooke for his faithful care of her husband, at which Mr. Brooke suddenly remembered that Mr. March needed rest, and seizing Laurie, he precipitately retired.†   (source)
  • Meanwhile, at the words, Are you the man? the woman had risen, had clasped her two children in her arms, and had taken refuge precipitately behind her husband, staring in terror at the stranger, with her bosom uncovered, and with frightened eyes, as she murmured in a low tone, "Tso-maraude.†   (source)
  • While carrying Marius' "duds" precipitately to his chamber, at his grandfather's command, Nicolette had, inadvertently, let fall, probably, on the attic staircase, which was dark, that medallion of black shagreen which contained the paper penned by the colonel.†   (source)
  • I never see that nice girl without more and more regretting his precipitancy in throwing himself away upon a dairymaid, or whatever she may be.†   (source)
  • Despite Angel Clare's plausible representation to himself and to Tess of the practical need for their immediate marriage, there was in truth an element of precipitancy in the step, as became apparent at a later date.†   (source)
  • His brothers had not replied at all, seeming to be indignant with him; while his father and mother had written a rather sad letter, deploring his precipitancy in rushing into marriage, but making the best of the matter by saying that, though a dairywoman was the last daughter-in-law they could have expected, their son had arrived at an age which he might be supposed to be the best judge.†   (source)
  • "I think it beneath the dignity of my office to parley further with the prisoners," the sheriff observer to his companion, while they both retired with a precipitancy that Captain Hollister mistook for the signal to advance.†   (source)
  • The prize was certainly great; but it was only to be won by striking the happy mean between precipitancy and caution.†   (source)
  • Towards noon whales were raised; but so soon as the ship sailed down to them, they turned and fled with swift precipitancy; a disordered flight, as of Cleopatra's barges from Actium.†   (source)
  • "I hope there will be no women besides our own party," Lady Bareacres said, after reflecting upon the invitation which had been made, and accepted with too much precipitancy.†   (source)
  • For in his Natural History, the Baron himself affirms that at sight of the Sperm Whale, all fish (sharks included) are "struck with the most lively terrors," and "often in the precipitancy of their flight dash themselves against the rocks with such violence as to cause instantaneous death."†   (source)
  • An act of so much precipitancy and presumption would seal the downfall of precocious intellect forever.†   (source)
  • They did not know whether they were cries of pain or joy; but they started up precipitately with that inquietude and alarm which every little thing inspires in an unknown country.   (source)
  • Laoghaire dropped the tray on the table next to the door, almost upsetting the decanter in her haste, and turning, fled precipitately.†   (source)
  • …addresses; but seeing that she delays, I believe the truth of the promise she has given me that the next time thou art absent from the house she will grant me an interview in the closet where thy jewels are kept (and it was true that Camilla used to meet him there); but I do not wish thee to rush precipitately to take vengeance, for the sin is as yet only committed in intention, and Camilla's may change perhaps between this and the appointed time, and repentance spring up in its place.†   (source)
  • But hurried on by the precipitancy of youth, and having his imperial majesty's license to pay my attendance upon the emperor of Blefuscu, I took this opportunity, before the three days were elapsed, to send a letter to my friend the secretary, signifying my resolution of setting out that morning for Blefuscu, pursuant to the leave I had got; and, without waiting for an answer, I went to that side of the island where our fleet lay.†   (source)
  • It establishes a salutary check upon the legislative body, calculated to guard the community against the effects of faction, precipitancy, or of any impulse unfriendly to the public good, which may happen to influence a majority of that body.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)
show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • She discussed the crisis precipitated by the Russian revolution.
  • She expressed concern that withdrawal of UN troops will precipitate chaos and tribal warfare.
    precipitate = cause suddenly
  • Relentless physical abuse had precipitated most of the deaths.   (source)
    precipitated = caused
  • The precipitating event is invariably domestic: a dispute with girlfriends or parents.   (source)
    precipitating = triggering (thing that causes something else to suddenly happen)
  • ...I'd like to know, in your own words, what it was that precipitated that decision.   (source)
    precipitated = suddenly caused
  • it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence.   (source)
    precipitate = lead to (make it happen quickly)
  • The essence of pearl mixed with essence of men and a curious dark residue was precipitated.   (source)
    precipitated = suddenly made
  • The quarrel was probably precipitated by Amanda's interruption of Tom's creative labor.   (source)
    precipitated = caused (suddenly)
  • it was a greater delight slyly to precipitate a fight amongst his mates   (source)
    precipitate = make something happen abruptly (suddenly)
  • I call it a revolution because I now see how, with the word he spoke, the curtain rose on the last act of my dreadful drama, and the catastrophe was precipitated.   (source)
    precipitated = caused suddenly
▲ show less (of above)
show 88 more with this conextual meaning
  • ...a sinking of the machinery would precipitate that keen, glistening axe upon my bosom.   (source)
    precipitate = suddenly make happen
  • You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands.   (source)
    precipitate = hurl downward
  • And why does he find himself entertaining the brainless notion that the stone he carries in the linen sachet in his pocket has brought him misfortune, has put Marie-Laure in danger, may indeed have precipitated the whole invasion of France?†   (source)
  • When CEO Yevshensky allowed King Billy of Asquith to recolonize the planet, it almost precipitated a true secession of AIs from the Web.†   (source)
  • Precipitating her way toward the sweet 'crete of the creek bottom like a black angel who has just had the shroud lines of her celestial parachute severed by the Almighty.†   (source)
  • Independence from Spain and then the abolition of slavery precipitated the conditions of honorable decadence in which Dr. Juvenal Urbino had been born and raised.†   (source)
  • …. include heat exchange filaments and salt precipitators.†   (source)
  • I was convinced, and Dr. Hopkinson seemed to be, too, that that had been the precipitating factor in his close call with death.†   (source)
  • When turned toward himself his anger has precipitated ideas of suicide.†   (source)
  • Two events precipitated a crisis.†   (source)
  • He wanted to leave before Jane precipitated a race riot.†   (source)
  • It should not be overlooked that his demise was precipitated in large measure by the youth of Romania—a great number of whom, were it not for his abortion ban, would never have been born at all.†   (source)
  • It might have precipitated another meltdown, or, as Hema had always feared, Stone might have returned to claim the children.†   (source)
  • Raison Pharmaceutical's move from France to Thailand precipitated the building of this particular one.†   (source)
  • These words precipitated Lucky's expelling a spray of beer onto Cesar's shirt.†   (source)
  • Pointing to the transcript, Barbara showed Joe where the 747 made the first sudden three-degree heading change, nose right, which precipitated a yaw.†   (source)
  • And they were the first sight encountered by Brewster Place's third generation of children, who drifted into the block and precipitated the exodus of the remaining Mediterranean.†   (source)
  • 'From what I've been told, you don't need any lessons in containing crises, or precipitating them either.†   (source)
  • I had no doubt that it had been precipitated by Paul's mishap, but I came to feel more and more awkward in my role as a buffer against an approaching quarrel, a confrontation, or the renewal of an old one.†   (source)
  • Alcohol always precipitated the violence.†   (source)
  • JEAN'S arm deals the OLD GENTLEMAN a sharp knock which precipitates him into the arms of the LOGICIAN.†   (source)
  • "The election," Adams realized, "was precipitated for the sole purpose of specially marking me.†   (source)
  • And, since it was Charlie's intervention that precipitated the tragedy, though he cannot be blamed for it, it is necessary to explain about his farming.†   (source)
  • The sound of the tune precipitated in him a sort of ecstasy   (source)
    precipitated = suddenly made
  • I burned with rage to pursue the murderer of my peace and precipitate him into the ocean.   (source)
    precipitate = hurl
  • I would have made a pilgrimage to the highest peak of the Andes, could I when there have precipitated him to their base.   (source)
    precipitated = hurled downward
  • The dripping of water precipitated from the windtrap filled the room with its presence.†   (source)
  • Her crossing back would be precipitated by dreaming there.†   (source)
  • The recommendation to play ball with France was precipitated by information from Thomas Hunter.†   (source)
  • A revolution swept across Mexico in 1910, precipitating a decade of civil war and anarchy.†   (source)
  • Her crossing to his world would be precipitated by falling asleep here.†   (source)
  • Jessica nodded to herself, remembering her son's ambivalent feelings toward the spice drug and the prescient awareness it precipitated.†   (source)
  • WINDTRAP: a device placed in the path of a prevailing wind and capable of precipitating moisture from the air caught within it, usually by a sharp and distinct drop in temperature within the trap.†   (source)
  • Our little laundry lesson this evening had been precipitated by his throwing a new red shirt into the hot water cycle, which left everything he'd been wearing lately with a rosy tinge.†   (source)
  • Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery?†   (source)
  • Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock?†   (source)
  • Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion?†   (source)
  • In fact, they d discussed the possibility that the apocalypse predicted by the apostle John might be precipitated by the virus.†   (source)
  • And it was this decision on the part of her aunt, for which Elizabeth did not forgive her for many years, that precipitated the third disaster, the separation of herself from her father? from all that she loved on earth.†   (source)
  • After only ten days in the Senate he had irritated his seniors and precipitated a three-hour debate by objecting to a routine resolution calling upon Senators to wear crepe one month in honor of three recently deceased patriots.†   (source)
  • Collectors or precipitators are egg-shaped devices about four centimeters on the long axis.†   (source)
  • It's the major source of water here, caught in windtraps and precipitators.†   (source)
  • DEW COLLECTORS or DEW PRECIPITATORS: not to be confused with dew gatherers.†   (source)
  • And there were the terraform desert plants: the tougher ones showed signs of thriving if planted in depressions lined with dew precipitators.†   (source)
  • When we have moisture locked in grasslands, we'll move on to start upland forests, then a few open bodies of water—small at first—and situated along lines of prevailing winds with windtrap moisture precipitators spaced in the lines to recapture what the wind steals.†   (source)
  • The leading and precipitating reason was that she proposed to adopt me.†   (source)
  • Life surges, precipitating forms, and then ebbs, leaving jetsam behind.†   (source)
  • THE FORWARD ROLL of the cosmogonic round precipitates the One into the many.†   (source)
  • From this air is precipitated.†   (source)
  • Francon was precipitated into paying nine dollars and twenty-five cents more than he had intended to pay.†   (source)
  • Perhaps an Accident On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.†   (source)
  • Then, realizing presently that no one was near enough to be touched by his sorrow, he paused suddenly and precipitated himself toward the door, crossing the dining-room, and, going up the hall, making loud lament: "Eliza!†   (source)
  • As THE CONSCIOUSNESS of the individual rests on a sea of night into which it descends in slumber and out of which it mysteriously wakes, so, in the imagery of myth, the universe is precipitated out of, and reposes upon, a timelessness back into which it again dissolves.†   (source)
  • I did not know even the circumstances that had precipitated the conflict.†   (source)
  • Things were precipitated by the offer of a better part.†   (source)
  • He is only fifty but the liver has stopped restoring itself; the precipitating factor is alcoholism.†   (source)
  • That shot of Kells's had precipitated a rush.†   (source)
  • These little rows were really precipitated by an atmosphere which was surcharged with dissension.†   (source)
  • But battle was precipitated by an accident.†   (source)
  • All yields, splits, cracks, floats, rolls, falls, jostles, hastens, is precipitated.†   (source)
  • …or gold rimmed, the yellow river slid slowly and majestically by, the birds sang in the cottonwoods, the horses grazed and pranced, children played and women longed for love, freedom, happiness; the outlaws rode in and out, free with money and speech; they lived comfortably in their adobe homes, smoked, gambled, talked, laughed, whiled away the idle hours—and all the time life there was wrong, and the simplest moment might be precipitated by that evil into the most awful of contrasts.†   (source)
  • Thus she saw how Harrington's words rang true—how they had precipitated a crisis for which her unconscious brooding had long made preparation.†   (source)
  • It was whispered about the country that shortly after the nuptials the bride found among her husband's papers several rough and incomplete drafts of the fatal letter, and had accused him of precipitating the marriage—and Sir Richard's death, too—by a wicked forgery.†   (source)
  • But we are not about to let our knowledge of what happened disrupt the deliberate pace of our narrative; instead, we shall give time the honor it is due and not rush into things—perhaps we shall even draw these events out a bit, for we share with young Hans Castorp the same moral scruples that for so long had kept him from precipitating such events.†   (source)
  • The impulse stirred in her, yet she dared not indulge it, to make a movement that would have precipitated them both into the gulf.†   (source)
  • Certainly her reading precipitated her observations of Main Street, of Gopher Prairie and of the several adjacent Gopher Prairies which she had seen on drives with Kennicott.†   (source)
  • These words of Stewart's precipitated a riot among Don Carlos and his followers, and they surged wildly around the sheriff.†   (source)
  • Like the others, he had calculated on the Indians charging back to meet them, thus precipitating a pitched battle.†   (source)
  • After all the pincushions and sofa pillows and embroidered slippers were sold, Emil precipitated a panic by taking out one of his turquoise shirt studs, which every one had been admiring, and handing it to the auctioneer.†   (source)
  • The idea precipitated Lily's avowal.†   (source)
  • And the very first dinner at the Verdurins' at which Forcheville was present threw a glaring light upon all the differences between them, made his qualities start into prominence and precipitated the disgrace of Swann.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, it did not happen to be one of the friendly and sarcastic cowboys that precipitated the crisis.†   (source)
  • He began with letter number one, dated June eighth, only three days after her departure from Lycurgus, and on through them all down to letters fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, in which, in piecemeal or by important references here and there, she related her whole contact with Clyde down to his plan to come for her in three weeks, then in a month, then on July eighth or ninth, and then the sudden threat from her which precipitated his sudden decision to meet her at Fonda.†   (source)
  • Jude had a conviction that his unhappy visit to her on that sad night had precipitated this marriage engagement, and it did anything but add to his happiness.†   (source)
  • The nose of the boat bumped the raft, and as the latter tilted rakishly he was precipitated toward her.†   (source)
  • She was the mainspring of Jett's calculated mechanism, and when the other men realized it, it precipitated something darkly somber into the situation.†   (source)
  • The very fact that you could make a complete comeback at your age proves that the precipitating factors were pretty near everything.†   (source)
  • The gun he drove had been unlimbered near Horsell, in order to command the sand pits, and its arrival it was that had precipitated the action.†   (source)
  • Only the atmosphere of distrust and ill-feeling was strengthened, precipitating every now and then little sprinklings of irritable conversation, enlivened by flashes of wrath.†   (source)
  • The world is mind precipitated, and the volatile essence is forever escaping again into the state of free thought.†   (source)
  • The precipitating manner in which Captain Ahab had quitted the Samuel Enderby of London, had not been unattended with some small violence to his own person.†   (source)
  • And he ran to his son, who had just precipitated himself into a heap of lime in order to whiten his boots.†   (source)
  • He had hardly uttered the name of his wife, before the whole of the crouching circle rose in a body, and tumbling over each other, they precipitated themselves down the dangerous passes of the rock with ungovernable impatience.†   (source)
  • With that she rushed across the street so impetuously that she narrowly escaped annihilation from a passing truck, and precipitated herself into the arms of a stately old gentleman, who said, "I beg pardon, ma'am," and looked mortally offended.†   (source)
  • One tumbled down with the water, and had to go to the spring for more; and another precipitated the butter into the path of events; and there was from time to time giggling news brought into the kitchen that "Mas'r Haley was mighty oneasy, and that he couldn't sit in his cheer no ways, but was a walkin' and stalkin' to the winders and through the porch."†   (source)
  • In my flight through the kitchen I bid Joseph speed to his master; I knocked over Hareton, who was hanging a litter of puppies from a chair-back in the doorway; and, blessed as a soul escaped from purgatory, I bounded, leaped, and flew down the steep road; then, quitting its windings, shot direct across the moor, rolling over banks, and wading through marshes: precipitating myself, in fact, towards the beacon-light of the Grange.†   (source)
  • Before three o'clock the large shed was invaded by the spectators, comprising Europeans and natives, Chinese and Japanese, men, women and children, who precipitated themselves upon the narrow benches and into the boxes opposite the stage.†   (source)
  • It was a species of table land, near the summit of an almost inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and interspersed with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the soil, and in many cases were prevented from precipitating themselves into the valleys below, merely by the support of the trees against which they reclined.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)
show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • It was separate, but part of everything else, suspended grains that would precipitate to the bottom of the beaker when she chose the fatal jar.†   (source)
  • Telling Annie at all would precipitate a series of lies, big and small, and Mae found herself, in the minutes between when she sent the message and Annie's inevitable reply, wondering just how much to conceal, and why.†   (source)
  • Recent studies have found that many foodborne pathogens can precipitate long-term ailments, such as heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, neurological problems, autoimmune disorders, and kidney damage.†   (source)
  • That I could double-distill, perform titration, calcify, sublimate, and precipitate solution.†   (source)
  • She would have liked to see him again to present him with her doubts, to speak with him alone, to learn to know him well so that she could be certain that her impulsive decision would not precipitate her into another, more serious one: capitulation in her personal war against her father.†   (source)
  • The collector forms a markedly cold surface upon which dawn dew will precipitate.†   (source)
  • One must be prepared for precipitate movements in prison, but one does not ever get used to them.†   (source)
  • Bottom line, the Feds are going to do nothing to precipitate this.†   (source)
  • "We cannot yet account for their precipitate retreat," wrote General Grant.†   (source)
  • A variety of drugs are available to precipitate painful and terrifying physiological symptoms—such as violent muscle spasms and inflamed nerve sheaths—which pose no danger to the life of this valuable asset.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)
show 82 more examples with any meaning
  • The cruel insensate faces of dogs near mine, the stench of their breath, the movement of their tongues, the quickness of their lean, precipitate movements against me.†   (source)
  • But you added — I think more confidently — that I could also precipitate them.†   (source)
  • In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence.†   (source)
  • She was used to such precipitate cowboy assaults.†   (source)
  • There was real fear mixed up in his love, and the precipitate from the mixing of these two is cruelty.†   (source)
  • My answer could precipitate violence or …. what?†   (source)
  • They've a concealed windtrap somewhere on the surface to funnel air down here into cooler regions and precipitate the moisture from it.†   (source)
  • The air that came in to them held the chill not-quite-dryness that would precipitate trace dew in the dawn.†   (source)
  • He deplored Adams's handling of relations with France, the "precipitate nomination" of William Vans _Murray, the firing of Timothy Pickering, the pardoning of John Fries.†   (source)
  • We have maintained our ground against the enemy under [a] …. want of powder, and we have disbanded one army and recruited another within musket shot of two and twenty regiments, the flower of the British army, when our strength has been little if any superior to theirs, and at last have beat them in a shameful and precipitate manner, out of a place the strongest by nature on this continent, strengthened and fortified in the best manner and at an enormous expense.†   (source)
  • But I willingly rose to Nathan's bait, quite unaware of the savage hook he had fashioned for my precipitate capture.†   (source)
  • It had all happened too fast, this sudden gratuitous charity, for Sophie to make immediate sense of it, but soon she had an inkling and she was truly alarmed—alarmed as much by the way Wilhelmine had all but pounced upon her (for now she realized this is what she had done), lurking like a tarantula while she waited for her to emerge from the cellar, as by the precipitate offering of the rather ridiculous largess itself.†   (source)
  • And then in precipitate dreamlike flight they are hurtling down the mountainside path, she leading him over the hard-pebbled slope like a nurse fleeing with a wounded man, gazing back from time to time to guide his progress beneath the trees as he stumbles, self-blinded by the hand worn like a pale bandage across his eyes.†   (source)
  • Her preoccupation with her sweetheart was maddening, and I could hardly bear the thought—thrust it into the back of my mind—that this precipitate passion she had for a few hot moments lavished on me was the result of a transfer of identity; that I was merely an instant surrogate Jozef, flesh to occupy space in an ephemeral fantasy.†   (source)
  • But perhaps I've been too precipitate in my wooing.†   (source)
  • This event may precipitate a considerable crisis; for it amounts to an emergence of powers hitherto excluded from human life.†   (source)
  • What is peculiar to the suicide is that his ego, rightly or wrongly, is felt to be an extremely dangerous, dubious, and doomed germ of nature; that he is always in his own eyes exposed to an extraordinary risk, as though he stood with the slightest foothold on the peak of a crag whence a slight push from without or an instant's weakness from within suffices to precipitate him into the void.†   (source)
  • There was nothing she could say that would not precipitate a scene in which he would be sure to remark upon her locked door and the probable connection Ashley had with it.†   (source)
  • Miss Bart shrank from it slightly, and then flung herself into precipitate explanations.†   (source)
  • It turned out that they had mistaken a precipitate of gypsum for protoplasm.†   (source)
  • He had been afraid that he was about to precipitate another conversation upon the marriage question.†   (source)
  • I could no longer doubt that we had been precipitate in our preparations--that Rowena still lived.†   (source)
  • Well, that will precipitate things, sure enough!†   (source)
  • I really must pay attention and not be precipitate about anything.†   (source)
  • But Precedent and Precipitate together frightened all objection out of most people.†   (source)
  • He thought Miss Archer sometimes of too precipitate a readiness.†   (source)
  • This observation was immediate, precipitate; it almost burst from Madame Merle's lips.†   (source)
  • But reason returned to me, and I was persuaded that this action could only precipitate a possible catastrophe.†   (source)
  • Perhaps, too, the fact that she was new to their world acted as a sort of catalytic agent to precipitate out all their old reservations about one another.†   (source)
  • Nor was this, I believe, merely a deception on Anderson's part, since the breakdown painful as it surely was, did help precipitate a basic change in his life.†   (source)
  • In such instances the will and the courage confronted by some great difficulty which it can neither master nor endure, appears in some to recede in precipitate flight, leaving only panic and temporary unreason in its wake.†   (source)
  • They loomed ominously above him; and when the breeze stirred them into huge movements, he cowered down in fear, keeping his eyes warily upon them, and prepared to spring away if they attempted to precipitate themselves upon him.†   (source)
  • The luggage was put on the top, and the man drove them off, the miller and the old waiting-woman expressing some surprise at their precipitate departure, which Clare attributed to his discovery that the mill-work was not of the modern kind which he wished to investigate, a statement that was true so far as it went.†   (source)
  • From this moment the emotion which had been accumulating in his breast as the bottled-up effect of solitude and the poetized locality he dwelt in, insensibly began to precipitate itself on this half-visionary form; and he perceived that, whatever his obedient wish in a contrary direction, he would soon be unable to resist the desire to make himself known to her.†   (source)
  • …real danger to himself, unless by some argument or assertion he could absolve himself of any responsibility in connection with this—a possibility which, in view of the fact that Roberta still worked for him, that he had written her some notes, and that any least word from her would precipitate an inquiry which would prove fatal to him, was sufficient to cause him to feel that he must assist her speedily and without a breath of information as to all this leaking out in any direction.†   (source)
  • Again she felt her colour change; again her heart rose in precipitate throbs to meet what she felt was coming.†   (source)
  • He walked beside her in silence, with quick precipitate steps, till they reached the embowered slopes to the east of the Casino; then, pulling up abruptly, he said: "Have you seen Bertha?"†   (source)
  • And in this instance, the mind of Clyde might well have been compared to a small and routed army in full flight before a major one, yet at various times in its precipitate departure, pausing for a moment to meditate on some way of escaping complete destruction and in the coincident panic of such a state, resorting to the weirdest and most haphazard of schemes of escaping from an impending and yet wholly unescapable fate.†   (source)
  • He put it to her as if she had not grasped the consequences of her act; as if her incorrigible ignorance of business were about to precipitate her into a fresh act of folly.†   (source)
  • …of a bronze jar; a series of French and English maids giving warning amid a chaos of hurriedly-ransacked wardrobes and dress-closets; an equally changing dynasty of nurses and footmen; quarrels in the pantry, the kitchen and the drawing-room; precipitate trips to Europe, and returns with gorged trunks and days of interminable unpacking; semi-annual discussions as to where the summer should be spent, grey interludes of economy and brilliant reactions of expense—such was the setting of…†   (source)
  • Miss Bart, glowing with the haste of a precipitate descent upon the train, headed a group composed of the Dorsets, young Silverton and Lord Hubert Dacey, who had barely time to spring into the carriage, and envelop Selden in ejaculations of surprise and welcome, before the whistle of departure sounded.†   (source)
  • She could never afterward recall how long the duel lasted, or what was the decisive stroke which finally, after a lapse of time recorded in minutes by the clock, in hours by the precipitate beat of her pulses, put her in possession of the letters; she knew only that the door had finally closed, and that she stood alone with the packet in her hand.†   (source)
  • Ah, but he would be well content to precipitate himself over the hill-side once again, as on the evening when he and I first encountered, close to the same spot!†   (source)
  • By a rapid movement, which the gendarme's practiced eye had perceived, Dantes sprang forward to precipitate himself into the sea; but four vigorous arms seized him as his feet quitted the bottom of the boat.†   (source)
  • He advised her against it, thought the jar too great; but no, he reasoned and talked in vain, she smiled and said, "I am determined I will:" he put out his hands; she was too precipitate by half a second, she fell on the pavement on the Lower Cobb, and was taken up lifeless!†   (source)
  • After riding about an hour in this way, the whole party made a precipitate and tumultuous descent into a barn-yard belonging to a large farming establishment.†   (source)
  • The Huron listened to this rebuke with obvious disgust, but he had his ends in view, and was too wily to lose all chance of effecting them by a precipitate avowal of resentment.†   (source)
  • This was about the time Catherine had reached her eighteenth year, so that it will be seen her father had not been precipitate.†   (source)
  • ] If the changes which I have described were gradual, so that each generation at least might have time to disappear with the order of things under which it had lived, the danger would be less; but the progress of society in America is precipitate, and almost revolutionary.†   (source)
  • I am very sensible, madam, of the hardship to my fair cousins, and could say much on the subject, but that I am cautious of appearing forward and precipitate.†   (source)
  • They are a great popular movement, and every great popular movement, whatever may be its cause and object, always sets free the spirit of liberty from its final precipitate.†   (source)
  • It may appear to some readers that the young lady was both precipitate and unduly fastidious; but the latter of these facts, if the charge be true, may serve to exonerate her from the discredit of the former.†   (source)
  • Still, his flashing eye glanced over a body of warriors on whom he had often relied, and who had never deceived him; and though, in the precise position in which he found himself, he felt no disposition to precipitate the conflict, he certainly would have had no intention to avoid it, had not the presence of his women and children placed the option altogether in the power of his adversaries.†   (source)
  • Carrying this resolution into instant effect, he had advanced as far as the passage, when the sound of the latch-key in the street door caused him to make a precipitate retreat into his own office again.†   (source)
  • "Thou hast spoken well, Brother Albert," said Beaumanoir; "thy motives were good, since thou didst judge it right to arrest thine erring brother in his career of precipitate folly.†   (source)
  • The sides of the pool were of masonry, to prevent the water from washing away the bank; but the force of the stream in winter was sometimes such as to undermine the retaining wall and precipitate it into the hole.†   (source)
  • Possibly the errand of the sheik was to see the worthy; possibly the letter might precipitate a full disclosure.†   (source)
  • As long as the procurator's wife could follow him with her eyes, she waved her handkerchief to him, leaning so far out of the window as to lead people to believe she wished to precipitate herself.†   (source)
  • Left by their guide, the travelers remained a few minutes in helpless ignorance, afraid even to move along the broken rocks, lest a false step should precipitate them down some one of the many deep and roaring caverns, into which the water seemed to tumble, on every side of them.†   (source)
  • Sir Leicester, with a gracious inclination of his head, seems to say to himself, "A sensible woman this, on the whole, though occasionally precipitate."†   (source)
  • With that he bent his good bow, and sent a shaft right through the breast of one of the men-at-arms, who, under De Bracy's direction, was loosening a fragment from one of the battlements to precipitate on the heads of Cedric and the Black Knight.†   (source)
  • The Doctor thought it very vulgar to be precipitate in accusing people of mercenary motives, inasmuch as his door had as yet not been in the least besieged by fortune-hunters; and, lastly, he was very curious to see whether Catherine might really be loved for her moral worth.†   (source)
  • A blow well given now would not merely disperse the mob and set the Nazarene free; it would be a trumpet-call to Israel, and precipitate the long-dreamt-of war for freedom.†   (source)
  • One does not take the matter ferociously; one does not precipitate himself into the tragic; one does not make one's mind to marriage and M. le Maire with his scarf.†   (source)
  • There happened then that which you know, and of which your precipitate departure," added the host, with an acuteness that did not escape d'Artagnan, "appeared to authorize the issue.†   (source)
  • But Precedent and Precipitate were, under all circumstances, the well-matched pair of battle-horses of this able Circumlocutionist.†   (source)
  • Yet in spite of all these temptations, let me warn my cousin Elizabeth, and yourself, of what evils you may incur by a precipitate closure with this gentleman's proposals, which, of course, you will be inclined to take immediate advantage of.'†   (source)
  • No matter that the unhappy honourable gentleman had been trying in vain, for twenty-five years, to precipitate William Barnacle into this—William Barnacle still put it to the House, and (at second-hand or so) to the country, whether he was to be precipitated into this.†   (source)
  • Then all is said, the tempest is loosed, stones rain down, a fusillade breaks forth, many precipitate themselves to the bottom of the bank, and pass the small arm of the Seine, now filled in, the timber-yards of the Isle Louviers, that vast citadel ready to hand, bristle with combatants, stakes are torn up, pistol-shots fired, a barricade begun, the young men who are thrust back pass the Austerlitz bridge with the hearse at a run, and the municipal guard, the carabineers rush up, the…†   (source)
  • He had gone to her de confiance, as they put it in Paris; but it was possible he had been precipitate.†   (source)
  • The confusion of his mind, the terror which spurred him on, the cries of some of the patrol who started in pursuit of him, and the hooting of the people who, notwithstanding the early hour, were going to their work, only made him precipitate his course.†   (source)
  • His feudal tower must arise in due majesty; the figures which he introduces must have the costume and character of their age; the piece must represent the peculiar features of the scene which he has chosen for his subject, with all its appropriate elevation of rock, or precipitate descent of cataract.†   (source)
  • He was never precipitate, he was nothing if not discreet, so he forbore for the present to declare his passion; but it seemed to him when they parted—the young lady to go down into Italy and her admirer to proceed to Geneva, where he was under bonds to join other friends—that he should be romantically wretched if he were not to see her again.†   (source)
  • This young man's disinterestedness appeared so very ludicrous in the eyes of Miss Rugg, that she was obliged to effect a precipitate retirement from the company, and to sit upon the stairs until she had had her laugh out.†   (source)
  • …own particular recipe for How not to do it; sometimes tapping the Speaker, and drawing it fresh out of him, with a 'First, I will beg you, sir, to inform the House what Precedent we have for the course into which the honourable gentleman would precipitate us;' sometimes asking the honourable gentleman to favour him with his own version of the Precedent; sometimes telling the honourable gentleman that he (William Barnacle) would search for a Precedent; and oftentimes crushing the…†   (source)
  • The town in general is left in a better state than we expected; more owing to a precipitate flight than any regard to the inhabitants; though some individuals discovered a sense of honor and justice, and have left the rent of the houses in which they were, for the owners, and the furniture unhurt, or, if damaged, sufficient to make it good.†   (source)
  • The note of all such literature, and of the maxims that precipitate themselves from it, is optimism.†   (source)
  • To those who create themselves wits at the cost of feminine delicacy (a habit of mind which he never did hold with) to them he would concede neither to bear the name nor to herit the tradition of a proper breeding: while for such that, having lost all forbearance, can lose no more, there remained the sharp antidote of experience to cause their insolency to beat a precipitate and inglorious retreat.†   (source)
  • Blind in their fear, they bounce against the wall, Or, to the moats pursued, precipitate their fall.†   (source)
  • I am about to precipitate, to sink, to plunge myself into the abyss that is here before me, only to let the world know that while thou dost favour me there is no impossibility I will not attempt and accomplish.†   (source)
  • If we will arbitrarily suppose the contrary, we may deduce any inferences we please from the supposition; for it is certainly possible, by an injudicious exercise of the authorities of the best government that ever was, or ever can be instituted, to provoke and precipitate the people into the wildest excesses.†   (source)
  • As flames among the lofty woods are thrown On diff'rent sides, and both by winds are blown; The laurels crackle in the sputt'ring fire; The frighted sylvans from their shades retire: Or as two neighb'ring torrents fall from high; Rapid they run; the foamy waters fry; They roll to sea with unresisted force, And down the rocks precipitate their course: Not with less rage the rival heroes take Their diff'rent ways, nor less destruction make.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)