dangerous
English
Alternative forms
- daungerous (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English dangerous (“difficult, severe, domineering, arrogant, fraught with danger”), daungerous, from Anglo-Norman [Term?], from Old French dangereus (“threatening, difficult”), from dangier. Equivalent to danger + -ous.
Displaced native Old English frēcne.
Pronunciation
Adjective
dangerous (comparative more dangerous, superlative most dangerous)
- Full of danger.
- Railway crossings without gates are highly dangerous.
- Synonyms: hazardous, perilous, risky, unsafe; see also Thesaurus:dangerous
- Antonym: safe
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
- [I]t is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.
- Causing danger; ready to do harm or injury.
- 1696, Tho[mas] Southerne, Oroonoko: A Tragedy […], London: […] H[enry] Playford […]; B[enjamin] Tooke […]; [a]nd S. Buckley […], OCLC 1227540146, Act III, scene ii, page 41:
- If they incline to think you dangerous, / They have their knaviſh Arts to make you ſo.
- 1965, Herbert, Frank, Dune (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, OCLC 15383013, page 49:
- And the Duke thought: The truth could he worse than he imagines, but even dangerous facts are valuable if you’ve been trained to deal with them. And there’s one place where nothing has been spared for my son—dealing with dangerous facts.
-
- (colloquial, dated) In a condition of danger, as from illness; threatened with death.
Usage notes
The standard comparative and superlative are more dangerous and most dangerous; the forms dangerouser and dangerousest or dangerest exist but are nonstandard.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
full of danger
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Occitan
Adjective
dangerous m (feminine singular dangerouso, masculine plural dangerous, feminine plural dangerousos)
- (Mistralian) Alternative form of dangeirós
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