precipitate

Etymology 1

From Latin praecipitatus, from praecipitō (“throw down, hurl down, throw headlong”), from praeceps (“head foremost, headlong”), from prae (“before”) + caput (“head”). Its English equivalent is probably analysable as precipice + -ate.

verb

1. (transitive) To make something happen suddenly and quickly.
   to precipitate a journey, or a conflict
   it precipitated their success
   Back to his sight precipitates her steps.
2. (transitive) To throw an object or person from a great height.
3. (transitive) To send violently into a certain state or condition.
   we were precipitated into a conflict
4. (intransitive, chemistry) To come out of a liquid solution into solid form.
   Adding the acid will cause the salt to precipitate.
5. (transitive, chemistry) To separate a substance out of a liquid solution into solid form.
6. (intransitive, meteorology) To have water in the air fall to the ground, for example as rain, snow, sleet, or hail; be deposited as condensed droplets.
   Troponyms: rain, snow, hail
   It will precipitate tomorrow, but we don't know whether as rain or snow.
7. (transitive) To cause (water in the air) to condense or fall to the ground.
8. (intransitive) To fall headlong.
9. (intransitive) To act too hastily; to be precipitous.

adj

1. headlong; falling steeply or vertically.
   When the full stores their ancient bounds disdain, / Precipitate the furious torrent flows. 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon, book 2, lines 853–854
2. Very steep; precipitous.
3. With a hasty impulse; hurried; headstrong.
4. Moving with excessive speed or haste; overly hasty.
   The king was too precipitate in declaring war.
   a precipitate case of disease
5. Performed very rapidly or abruptly.
   It had cost me a distinct psychological effort to do so, and now that I was shut inside I had a momentary longing for precipitate retreat. 1931, H[oward] P[hillips] Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness

Etymology 2

From New Latin praecipitatum. Doublet of precipitato.

noun

1. a product resulting from a process, event, or course of action
2. (chemistry) a solid that exits the liquid phase of a solution