danger

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Exposure to injury

Nouns

1. danger, peril, jeopardy, risk, hazard, threat, adventure, insecurity, precariousness, slipperiness; Russian roulette (see chance).

2. (vulnerability to danger) exposure, vulnerability; vulnerable point, Achilles' heel, glass jaw.

3. (dangerous situation) forlorn hope, dangerous course, leap in the dark (see rashness), road to ruin; hairbreadth escape; cause for alarm, breakers ahead, storm brewing, gathering clouds, a lion in the way, lion's mouth; valley of the shadow of death; house of cards, hornet's nest, powder keg, time bomb; China syndrome; apprehension (see warning). Slang, killer litter, loose cannon.

4. pitfall; [booby] trap, snare, trip wire; quicksand, undertow; snake in the grass, sword of Damocles; whirlpool, maelstrom, ambush, etc.; clay pigeon.

Verbs

1. be in danger; be exposed to danger, run into or encounter danger; run a risk, lay oneself open to (see liability); lean on a broken reed, feel the ground sliding or slipping from under one; have to run for it; have the odds against one; sit, sleep, or stand on a volcano, hang by a thread, totter [on the brink], sit on a barrel of gunpowder, sit on a powderkeg, sit on dynamite, live in a glass house.

2. (place in danger) endanger; bring, place, or put in danger, expose to danger, imperil, jeopardize, compromise, throw to the wolves.

3. (take chances) adventure, play with fire, tempt fate, take a chance, take one's life in one's hands, skate on thin ice, risk one's neck, bell the cat, dice with death, ride for a fall; run the gauntlet, go through the mill, go through hell and high water; dare (see courage); engage in a forlorn hope, sail too near the wind (see rashness). Slang, chase the dragon. See

chance, defiance.

4. be dangerous, bear watching.

Adjectives

1. dangerous, hazardous, perilous, parlous, fateful; at stake, in question; precarious, ticklish, slippery, fraught with danger; built on sand, hanging or trembling in the balance, touch and go; threatening (see warning); explosive. Slang, hairy.

2. in danger, endangered, unsafe, unprotected, insecure; defenseless, unshielded, vulnerable, pregnable, exposed, open (to); at bay, on the rocks; hanging by a thread, between life and death, between Scylla and Charybdis, between two fires, between the Devil and the deep blue sea; on the edge, in deep [water], out on a limb, on the brink or verge of a precipice, in the lion's den, on slippery ground, on thin ice, under fire, not out of the woods; with one's back to the wall, on the spot; unprepared, off one's guard; helpless, in a bad way, in the last extremity.

Adverbs — dangerously, hazardously, etc.

Phrases — if you play with fire, you get burned; the female of the species is more dangerous than the male.

Quotations — In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed (Emerson).

Antonyms, see safety.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. risk, peril, jeopardy, threat, hazard, insecurity, uncertainty, instability, exposure, venture, destabilizing factor, menace, precariousness, vulnerability, slipperiness, shakiness, treacherousness, endangerment, emergency, crisis, exigency, predicament, precipice, thin ice*.

Ant. safety*, security, certainty.

Syn.- danger is the general term for liability to injury or evil, of whatever degree or likelihood of occurrence [ the danger of falling on icy walks ] ; peril suggests Great and imminent danger [ in peril of death ] ; jeopardy emphasizes exposure to extreme danger [ liberty is in jeopardy under tyrants ] ; hazard implies a foreseeable but uncontrollable possibility of danger, but stresses the element of chance [ the hazards of hunting big game ] ; risk implies the voluntary taking of a dangerous chance

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

peril, threat, hazard, menace, endangerment, *thin ice, jeopardy, vulnerability, *storm clouds on the horizon, pitfall, ticking bomb, *powder keg, *critical mass, *'between Scylla and Charybdis, *sword of Damocles. ''The spur of all great minds.''— George Chapman.

ANT.: safety, security

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Exposure to possible harm, loss, or injury: endangerment, hazard, imperilment, jeopardy, peril, risk. See SAFETY.