parlous

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
parlous
    adj 1: fraught with danger; "dangerous waters"; "a parlous
           journey on stormy seas"; "a perilous voyage across the
           Atlantic in a small boat"; "the precarious life of an
           undersea diver"; "dangerous surgery followed by a touch-
           and-go recovery" [syn: {parlous}, {perilous},
           {precarious}, {touch-and-go}]
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Parlous \Par"lous\, a. [For perlous, a contr. fr. perilous.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. Attended with peril; dangerous; as, a parlous cough.
      [Archaic] "A parlous snuffing." --Beau. & Fl.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Venturesome; bold; mischievous; keen. [Obs.] "A parlous
      boy." --Shak. "A parlous wit." --Dryden. -- {Par"lous*ly},
      adv. [Obs.] -- {Par"lous*ness}, n. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
24 Moby Thesaurus words for "parlous":
      alarming, awkward, bad, chancy, critical, dangerous, dangersome,
      difficult, explosive, fraught with danger, hairy, hazardous, iffy,
      jeopardous, menacing, periculous, perilous, precarious, risky,
      serious, threatening, ticklish, ugly, uncertain
antiflux / dictionary / parlous
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