dangerous

/ˈdeɪndʒərəs/

/ˈdeɪndʒərəs/

Use the word dangerous to describe anything that can potentially cause serious harm, like a snarling pit bull or an icy, treacherous road.

The earliest meaning of the word dangerous was "difficult or arrogant." When Geoffrey Chaucer wrote "The Canterbury Tales" in the 1300s, he used dangerous to mean "hard to please." Gradually the meaning changed, so that by the late fifteenth century, dangerous meant "liable to cause hurt" or "risky." Just as popular were two other danger-related words that we don't use anymore today: dangersome and dangerful, which at the time could be used interchangeably with dangerous.

Definitions of dangerous

1. adjective

   involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm
   “a dangerous criminal”

   “a dangerous bridge”

   “unemployment reached dangerous proportions”

   synonyms: unsafe

   breakneck

   moving at very high speed

   chanceful, chancy, dicey, dodgy

   of uncertain outcome; especially fraught with risk

   desperate

   (of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair

   hazardous, risky, wild

   involving risk or danger

   insidious

   intended to entrap

   mordacious

   biting or given to biting

   on the hook

   caught in a difficult or dangerous situation

   parlous, perilous, precarious, touch-and-go

   fraught with danger

   self-destructive, suicidal

   dangerous to yourself or your interests

   treacherous, unreliable

   dangerously unstable and unpredictable

   insecure, unsafe

   lacking in security or safety

   vulnerable

   susceptible to attack

   antonyms:

   safe

   free from danger or the risk of harm

   harmless

   not causing or capable of causing harm

   uninjured

   not injured physically or mentally

   fail-safe

   eliminating danger by compensating automatically for a failure or malfunction

   off the hook

   freed from danger or blame or obligation

   risk-free, riskless, unhazardous

   thought to be devoid of risk

   safe and sound, unhurt

   free from danger or injury

   secure

   free from danger or risk

   invulnerable

   immune to attack; impregnable
2. adjective

   causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm
   “a dangerous operation”

   synonyms: grave, grievous, life-threatening, serious, severe

   critical

   being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency