precipitously

English

Etymology

From precipitous +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈsɪ.pɪ.təs.li/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Adverb

precipitously (comparative more precipitously, superlative most precipitously)

1. In a precipitous manner.
   1. Abruptly; quickly.
   2. At a sharp upwards angle.
      • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

        Never will I visit it again; it is a place of evil omen.' After a very brief halt for breakfast we pressed on with such good will that by two o'clock in the afternoon we were at the foot of the vast wall of rock that formed the lip of the volcano, and which at this point towered up precipitously above us for fifteen hundred or two thousand feet.

      • 1954 October, 'Boscawen', “The Kowloon-Canton Railway of Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 712:

        On all sides, wild mountains rise precipitously above wooded nullahs, and we have a clear view, to the right, of the famous Amah Rock, with its singular resemblance to a Chinese woman carrying her baby on her back in the traditional fashion.

Translations

abruptly

• Dutch: overhaast (nl)
• Finnish: yllättäen (fi), äkkiarvaamatta
• French: abruptement (fr)
• German: unerwartet (de)
• Hungarian: hirtelen (hu)
• Indonesian: drastis (id), tiba-tiba (id)
• Interlingua: precipitatemente, abruptemente
• Italian: bruscamente (it), precipitevolissimevolmente (it), precipitosamente (it)
• Japanese: 急 (ja) (きゅう, kyū), 突然 (とつぜん, totsuzen) (?)
• Portuguese: abruptamente (pt), precipitadamente (pt)
• Russian: стреми́тельно (ru) (stremítelʹno)
• Spanish: precipitadamente (es)