Parlous

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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 WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  parlous
       adj : 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: {perilous}, {precarious}, {touch-and-go}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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