Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Adventurous \Ad*ven"tur*ous\, a. [OE. aventurous, aunterous, OF. aventuros, F. aventureux, fr. aventure. See Adventure, n.]
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Inclined to adventure; willing to incur hazard; prone to embark in hazardous enterprise; rashly daring; -- applied to persons.
Bold deed thou hast presumed, adventurous Eve.
--Milton. -
Full of hazard; attended with risk; exposing to danger; requiring courage; rash; -- applied to acts; as, an adventurous undertaking, deed, song.
Syn: Rash; foolhardy; presumptuous; enterprising; daring; hazardous; venturesome. See Rash.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-14c., "hazardous" (also "occurring by chance," late 14c.), from Old French aventuros "chance, accidental, fortuitous;" of persons, "devoted to adventure" (Modern French aventureux), from aventure (see adventure (n.)). Sense evolution is through "rash, risk-taking" (c.1400), "daring, fond of adventure" (mid-15c.).
Wiktionary
a. (label en of a person) inclined to adventure; willing to incur risks; prone to embark in hazardous enterprise; rashly daring.
WordNet
adj. willing to undertake or seeking out new and daring enterprises; "adventurous pioneers"; "the risks and gains of an adventuresome economy" [syn: adventuresome] [ant: unadventurous]
Usage examples of "adventurous".
Barbaro told me the chief incidents in a life that had been adventurous enough, and informed me that he was now in the service of the Duke of Modena, the Governor of Milan.
I determined to dissemble, hoping that I should never see the adventurous lover again, and that thus all would be as if it had never happened.
After all it is an easy enough matter for an adventurous man, who does not look where he is going, to get hanged for a mere trifle.
I think of starting on the road to resume my adventurous life, I laugh at myself in the mirror.
But it never amounted to anything more than warm friendship, as his love for his free and adventurous life was much stronger than any chains Cupid could weave.
In 1884, Paul decided to give up his adventurous life, and settle down.
And so ended the very remarkable and adventurous life of Hunter Quatermain.
In its struggles to see in through the open door, the crowd formed itself into a straggling wedge, with the more adventurous apex nearest the inn.
The Knights who rode guard on the carriage shouted in surprise as the two tumbled to the street, but they were no more adventurous than the ones inside.
While every healthy arachnoid longed to take part in the adventurous new life, he or she longed also, through sheer affection and symbiotic entanglement, to assist his or her ichthyoid mate to have an equal share in that life.
SEVEN IN THE COURSE OF THAT DAY, MACKLIN LEARNED FAR more about the adventurous life of Colonel Ned Buntline than he really cared to know.
IN THE COURSE OF THAT DAY, MACKLIN LEARNED FAR more about the adventurous life of Colonel Ned Buntline than he really cared to know.
There were one or two chairs placed behind a red drugget curtain, where adventurous spirits led their partners later in the evening.
No one having previously heard his history, could for the first time behold Father Mapple without the utmost interest, because there were certain engrafted clerical peculiarities about him, imputable to that adventurous maritime life he had led.
Balit had taken to tossing the ball to Felk every now and then so it almost seemed like an outing, just a little more adventurous than any of them had hoped for.