precariously

adverb

pre·​car·​i·​ous·​ly pri-ˈker-ē-əs-lē 

: in a precarious manner

These birds suspend their nests precariously among fine twigs …

—Michael Hansell

… the privilege of a tiny, precariously poised minority.

—Derek Bickerton

Waiters in white shirts and black vests roamed, trays balanced precariously but with utmost precision.

—Noah Charney

… it's now balancing precariously on the brink of extinction and has become the first-ever bumblebee to be declared endangered in the US.

—Laura Dennison

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Images captured by a rescue team showed the battered SUV right-side up, perched precariously on a rocky ledge just above the Pacific Ocean. —Tim Stelloh, NBC News, 6 Jan. 2023

Food styling becomes its own choreography when Ho stacks five white bowls precariously and whimsically high, packing the crowning bowl with dumplings and pouring chili over them so that the reddish brown sauce glides down the porcelain, on to the tablecloth, messy and beautifully irreverent. —Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2022

Moments later, the vehicle was dangling precariously. —John Benson, cleveland, 18 May 2022

But where 21 oceanfront homes once stood shoulder-to-shoulder west of Highway 1, only four remain, clinging precariously to the cliffs. —Lindsey J. Smith, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Apr. 2022

It’s become a precariously lazy position to begin with. —Zach Osterman, The Indianapolis Star, 18 Apr. 2022

In North America alone, monarch butterfly populations are heading precariously close to extinction levels. —Washington Post, 4 Apr. 2022

Even supporters of replanting admit it’s not guaranteed to work — especially in Southern California, where forests are small and often precariously perched on modest mountaintops. —San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 Sep. 2021

Now, a procession of patients require constant attention, their oxygen levels often dipping precariously low without maximum intervention. —New York Times, 27 Aug. 2021

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Word History

First Known Use

1646, in the meaning defined above