dangerous

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.

adj

  1. Full of danger.
    Railway crossings without gates are highly dangerous.
  2. Causing danger; ready to do harm or injury.
    If they incline to think you dangerous, / They have their knaviſh Arts to make you ſo. 1696, Tho[mas] Southerne, Oroonoko: A Tragedy[…], London: […] H[enry] Playford[…]; B[enjamin] Tooke[…]; [a]nd S. Buckley[…], →OCLC, act III, scene ii, page 41
    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. 1965, Frank Herbert, Dune (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 49
  3. (colloquial, dated) In a condition of danger, as from illness; threatened with death.

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/dangerous), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.