Sample Sentences for
precipitous
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

precipitous as in:  a trail with a precipitous drop

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From the cliff's edge, we peered down the precipitous drop into the canyon below.
precipitous = steep
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    The drop on the other side was just as precipitous as the one we'd climbed.  (source)
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    He stayed there for ten days, until high winds forced him to seek refuge in a cave midway up the precipitous face of the bluff, where he remained for another ten days.  (source)
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    The shallow groove carved by the stream ended at the top of a cliff that was the precipitous edge of the mountain.  (source)
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Show 10 more with 2 word variations
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    Just a precipitous drop to the sea.  (source)
    precipitous = steep
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    She made a sudden and unsignaled left turn, pulling onto a road that dropped precipitously down a hill with fields on either side, and she gripped the steering wheel tight as we accelerated, and she waited until the last possible moment to brake, just before we reached the bottom of the hill.  (source)
    precipitously = steeply
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    Lately, however, Joe Odom's fortunes had taken a precipitous plunge.  (source)
    precipitous = steep (sharp decline)
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    From a ridge some three hundred yards inland, the island sloped to the sea and, forty or so yards into it, fell off precipitously, disappearing from sight into the depths of the Pacific, surely the smallest continental shelf on record.  (source)
    precipitously = steeply
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    Mahipar—which means "Flying Fish"—was a high summit with a precipitous drop overlooking the hydro plant the Germans had built for Afghanistan back in 1967.  (source)
    precipitous = steep
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    Their excitement was not his; he felt as if he'd moved too precipitously.†  (source)
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    But given the imperative of feeding the cities, the precipitous decline in the harvest was met with increased quotas and requisitions enforced at gunpoint.  (source)
    precipitous = steep (sharp decline)
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    And though it was warmer than it had been when they so precipitously left the apple orchard, there was a faintly autumnal touch to the air; near them were several small trees with reddened leaves very like sumac, and a big patch of goldenrod-like flowers.†  (source)
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    Catelyn climbed stiffly from the shadows and looked at the path ahead; twenty feet long and close to three feet wide, but with a precipitous drop to either side.  (source)
    precipitous = steep
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    His weight fell precipitously.†  (source)
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precipitous as in:  a precipitous decision

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Overnight, a cold front caused a precipitous fall in temperature.
precipitous = sudden
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    By August 19, he was dead. There has been a great deal of conjecture about what caused such a precipitous decline.  (source)
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    What is commonly thought of by the layman as the Angel of Death, when discussed at all with the patient's family, should be presented to them as a small series of strokes compounding an already precipitous state of decline.  (source)
    precipitous = steep (declining rapidly)
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