Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRE-CIP'I-TATE-LY, adv.

1. Headlong; with steep descent.
2. Hastily; with rash haste; without due caution. Neither praise nor censure precipitately.

PRE-CIP'I-TA-TING, ppr.

Throwing headlong; hurrying; hastening rashly.

PRE-CIP-I-TA'TION, n. [L. præcipitatio.]

1. The act of throwing headlong. – Shak.
2. A falling, flowing or rushing down with violence and rapidity. The hurry, precipitation and rapid motion of the water. – Woodward.
3. Great hurry; rash, tumultuous haste; rapid movement. The precipitation of inexperience is often restrained by shame. – Rambler.
4. The act or operation of throwing to the bottom of a vessel any substance held in solution by its menstruum. Precipitation is often effected by a double elective attraction. – Encyc.

PRE-CIP'I-TA-TOR, n.

One that urges on with vehemence or rashness. – Hammond.

PRE-CIP'I-TOUS, a. [L. præceps.]

1. Very steep; as, a precipitous cliff or mountain.
2. Headlong; directly or rapidly descending; as, a precipitous fall. – K. Charles.
3. Hasty; rash; heady. Advice unsafe, precipitous and bold. – Dryden.

PRE-CIP'I-TOUS-LY, adv.

With steep descent; in violent haste.

PRE-CIP'I-TOUS-NESS, n.

1. Steepness of descent.
2. Rash haste. – Hammond.

PRE-CISE', a. [L. præcisus, from præcido, to cut off; præ and cædo; literally, cut or pared away, that is, pared to smoothness or exactness.]

1. Exact; nice; definite; having determinate limitations; not loose, vague, uncertain or equivocal; as, precise rules of morality; precise directions for life and conduct. The law in this point is precise. – Bacon. For the hour precise, / Exacts our parting. – Milton.
2. Formal; superstitiously exact; excessively nice; punctilious in conduct or ceremony. – Addison.

PRE-CISE'LY, adv.

1. Exactly; nicely; accurately; in exact conformity to truth or to a model. The ideas are precisely expressed. The time of an eclipse may be precisely determined by calculation. When more of these orders than one are to be set in several; stories, there must be an exquisite care to place the columns precisely one over another. – Wotton.
2. With excess of formality; with scrupulous exactness or punctiliousness in behavior or ceremony.

PRE-CISE'NESS, n.

1. Exactness; rigid nicety; as, the preciseness of words or expressions. I will distinguish the cases; though give me leave in handling them, not to sever them with too much preciseness. – Bacon.
2. Excessive regard to forms or rules; rigid formality.

PRE-CI'SIAN, n. [s as z.]

1. One that limits or restrains. – Shak.
2. One who is rigidly or ceremoniously exact in the observance of rules. – Drayton. Watts.

PRE-CI'SIAN-ISM, n.

Excessive exactness; superstitious rigor. – Milton. [These two words are, I believe, little used, or not at all.]

PRE-CI'SION, n. [s as z. Fr. from L. præcisio.]

Exact limitation; exactness; accuracy. Precision in the use of words is a prime excellence in discourse; it is indispensable in controversy, in legal instruments and in mathematical calculations. Neither perspicuity nor precision should be sacrificed to ornament.

PRE-CI'SIVE, a.

Exactly limiting by separating what is not relative to the purpose; as, precisive abstraction. – Watts.

PRE-CLUDE', v.t. [L. præcludo; præ, before, and cludo, claudo, to shut.]

1. To prevent from entering by previously shutting the passage, or by any previous measures; hence, to hinder from access, possession or enjoyment. Sin, by its very nature, precludes the sinner from heaven; it precludes the enjoyment of God's favor; or it precludes the favor of God. The valves preclude the blood from entering the veins. – Darwin.
2. To prevent from happening or taking place.

PRE-CLUD'ED, pp.

Hindered from entering or enjoyment; debarred from something by previous obstacles.

PRE-CLUD'ING, ppr.

Shutting out; preventing from access or possession or from having place.

PRE-CLU'SION, n. [s as z.]

The act of shutting out or preventing from access or possession; the state of being prevented from entering, possession or enjoyment. – Rambler.

PRE-CLU'SIVE, a.

Shutting out, or tending to preclude; hindering by previous obstacles. – Burke.

PRE-CLU'SIVE-LY, adv.

With hinderance by anticipation.

PRE-CO'CIOUS, a. [L. præcox; præ, before, and coquo, to cook or prepare.]

1. Ripe before the proper or natural time; as, precocious trees. – Brown.
2. Premature.

PRE-CO'CIOUS-LY, adv.

With premature ripeness or forwardness.

PRE-CO'CIOUS-NESS, or PRE-COC'I-TY, n.

Rapid growth and ripeness before the usual time; prematureness. – Howell. I can not learn that he gave, in his youth, any evidence of that precocity which sometimes distinguishes uncommon genius. – Wirt's Life of P. Henry.

PRE-COG'I-TATE, v.t. [L. præcogito; præ and cogito.]

To consider or contrive beforehand. [Little used.] – Sherwood.

PRE-COG-I-TA'TION, n.

Previous thought or consideration. – Dict.