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What is "parlous"

Crossword clues for parlous

parlous
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
parlous
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
state
▪ The mill was relegated to storage for many years, and by the 1960s was in a somewhat parlous state.
▪ But it still didn't stop me having a perfectly valid opinion on the parlous state of contemporary kits.
▪ Derbyshire is probably in the most parlous state of all the first-class counties.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ the parlous state of the country's economy
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But it still didn't stop me having a perfectly valid opinion on the parlous state of contemporary kits.
▪ Derbyshire is probably in the most parlous state of all the first-class counties.
▪ His priority is his own increasingly parlous situation at home.
▪ The death of Vial left his widow in parlous straits.
▪ The mill was relegated to storage for many years, and by the 1960s was in a somewhat parlous state.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Parlous

Parlous \Par"lous\, a. [For perlous, a contr. fr. perilous.]

  1. Attended with peril; dangerous; as, a parlous cough. [Archaic] ``A parlous snuffing.''
    --Beau. & Fl.

  2. Venturesome; bold; mischievous; keen. [Obs.] ``A parlous boy.''
    --Shak. ``A parlous wit.''
    --Dryden. -- Par"lous*ly, adv. [Obs.] -- Par"lous*ness, n. [Obs.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
parlous

late 14c., late Middle English contraction of perilous.

Wiktionary
parlous

a. 1 Attended with peril; dangerous; risky. 2 dire, terrible, appalling. 3 (context obsolete English) Dangerously clever or cunning. adv. (context archaic English) Very, extremely.

WordNet
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]

Wikipedia
Parlous

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Usage examples of "parlous".

Sear scoffed: his wife's infirmities, her imminent widowhood, her beginning menopause -- not to mention the parlous state of the University, ever worsening, and the general absurdity of existence.